A videotape intervention to enhance the informed consent process for medical and psychiatric treatment research.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated a brief educational video designed to enhance the informed consent process for people with serious mental and medical illnesses who are considering participating in treatment research.


METHODS
Individuals with schizophrenia who were being recruited for ongoing clinical trials, medical patients without self-reported psychiatric comorbidity, and university undergraduates were randomly assigned to view either a highly structured instructional videotape about the consent process in treatment research or a control videotape that presented only general information about bioethical issues in human research. Knowledge about informed consent was measured before and after viewing.


RESULTS
Viewing the experimental videotape resulted in larger gains in knowledge about informed consent. Standardized effect sizes were large in all groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The videotape was thus an effective teaching tool across diverse populations, ranging from individuals with severe chronic mental illness to university undergraduates.
Wirshing
Donna A
DA
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, USA.
Sergi
Mark J
MJ
Mintz
Jim
J
D000328:Adult; D001675:Bioethics; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D018579:Patient Selection; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D035842:Research Subjects / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D013664:Teaching Materials / Q000592:standards; D014743:Videotape Recording