Kate Gallin Heffernan, Member of the Firm, will participate in the panel discussion, "Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges of Conducting Research on Involuntarily Admitted Patients," at the 2020 Advancing Ethical Research Conference, hosted by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R). 

Patients are involuntarily admitted to psychiatric hospitals for a variety of conditions, including acute suicidality, severe psychosis, and inability to care for themselves, among others. Such patients are unable to leave the hospital on their own accord and are a particularly vulnerable population on the basis of their legal status. In some jurisdictions, even patients admitted voluntarily to psychiatric hospitals have restrictions placed on their ability to leave the unit immediately and experience some degree of this same vulnerability. Research on particular psychiatric conditions benefits from the inclusion of these subjects (e.g., looking to prevent suicidality or to understand the neurobiology of fulminant psychosis). Federal research regulations do not provide specific protections required for research in this population. Institutions have handled research in this population differently, with some outright banning it altogether, and others permitting it with additional safeguards for subjects in place (e.g., limited to minimal risk research or with special considerations for assurance of the consent process).

This panel will discuss the ethical, legal, and regulatory challenges of conducting research on involuntarily admitted patients. The panel will aim to provide a framework and pragmatic advice for IRBs to review studies of this nature, including specific safeguards that can be put in place to conduct this research most effectively and safely.

For more information, please visit EventScribe.com.

Event Detail

Virtual Event (ET)
Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.