Ethical considerations in research participation among acutely injured trauma survivors: An empirical investigation

Posttraumatic behavioral and emotional disturbances occur frequently among physically injured trauma survivors. Despite increasing investigative inter est in the evaluation and treatment of psychological distress in acutely in jured patients, few studies have assessed ethical considerations surroundin g research participation. The authors empirically investigated ethical cons iderations in research participation among 117 physically injured, hospital ized, motor vehicle accident and assault survivors. Immediately following a 1-hour research interview, participants responded to 10 questions assessin g the experience of research participation. The majority of study subjects found participating in the protocol a positive experience. Most of the hosp italized patients reported that they experienced control over initiation an d discontinuation of the protocol and that they derived benefit from their research participation. A minority of participants reported that they exper ienced unwanted thoughts and unanticipated upset during the protocol and th at they felt they could not refuse participation. However, over 95% of pati ents reported that the benefits of protocol participation outweighed the co sts and that in retrospect they would again agree to participate. These res ults suggest that while a minority of participants may have difficulties wi th specific aspects of protocol enrollment, overall research participation is well tolerated by the majority of acutely injured, hospitalized, trauma survivors. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.