title: Screening for understanding of research in the inpatient psychiatry setting.
abstract: People with mental illness constitute a substantial proportion of smokers and an important population for smoking cessation research. Obtaining informed consent in this population is a critical ethical endeavor. We examined performance on a three-item instrument (3Q) designed to screen for understanding of several key elements of research: study purpose, risks, and benefits. Patients were clinically diagnosed with primary unipolar depression (n = 40), a primary psychotic disorder (n = 32), both mood and psychotic disorders (n = 17), and primary bipolar disorder (n = 14). Among an ethnically diverse sample of 124 psychiatric inpatients approached for a smoking cessation trial, 107 (86%) performed adequately on the 3Q (i.e., obtained a score of at least 3 out of a possible 6). Patients were better able to identify the study risks and benefits than to describe the study purpose. The 3Q appears to be a useful tool for researchers working with vulnerable psychiatric patients.
authors.affiliation: Treatment Research Center in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California-San Francisco, 401 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Norval.Hickman@ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Norval J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Hickman
authors.forename: Judith J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Prochaska
authors.forename: Laura B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000941:ethics*; D032882:Comprehension; D032984:Ethics, Research; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000941:ethics*; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012306:Risk; D012907:Smoking; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035862:Vulnerable Populations