patients may be less risk averse than committees

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7489.471

BMJ 2005;330:471-472 (26 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7489.471

Commentary

patients may be less risk averse than committees

Shirley Nurock, London region coordinator, Alzheimer's Society quality research in dementia consumer network¹

¹ London SW3 4BD s_nurock@hotmail.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Ethical considerations should apply to all medical practiceand interventions that affect patients. This should includesocial caregiving, which at present is not seen as being inneed of moral or ethical consideration. And if audit is potentiallymore likely to lead to change than research, as Wade claims,¹clearly it should be given equal consideration and outcomesfollowed up.

Sometimes, however, it feels as though ethics committees areputting up barriers to much needed research. As a former carerfor my husband, a general practitioner who developed Alzheimer'sdisease in his 50s, I know that some people with dementia andtheir carers perceive acceptable risk differently from ethicscommittees and are more willing to take risks, feeling thereis little to lose. Indeed, research has shown that carers andpeople with dementia are particularly altruistic in their desireto be included in research.²

Affected patients should be given a . . . [Full text of this article]

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