“ The ethical consequences are that researchers as well as ECs12 are obliged to assess comprehensively

the risk:benefit ratio in order to establish whether the advantage of the placebo application is greater than its risks. They must examine precisely the pros and cons of the study (eg, “me-too-trials,” noninferiority or superiority trials),10 and the definition of the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical clinical conditions of the study sample (eg, severe or mild depression, therapy resistance). They must guarantee that the research patient will be informed clearly and comprehensively and has the capacity to consent. Therapeutic misconception Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Ethically important is a patient’s misconception of research as care, ie, “to confuse the design and conduct of research with personalised medical care.13 This situation was labelled 25 years ago ”therapeutic

misconception“ (TM).14 Recently this concept has been controversially discussed. It was suggested that the lermTM supports the ”assumption that clinical trial participation disadvantages research participants as compared with receiving standard medical care“13 as well as the reproach that some of its newer interpretations ”exaggerate the distinction between research and treatment.“ 15 But such statements were clearly repudiated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by the inventors of the term, who stated: Our concerns about TM’s impact on informed consent, do not derive from the belief that research subjects have poorer Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical outcomes than persons receiving ordinary clinical care. Rather, we believe that, subjects withTM cannot, give an adequate informed consent to research participation, which harms their dignitary interests and their abilities to make meaningful decisions. …In the absence

of empirical studies on the steps required to dispel I’M and the impact of such procedures on subject recruitment, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical it is premature to surrender to the belief thatTM must, be widely tolerated in clinical research.16 An investigation by these latter authors resulted in the conclusion that ”subjects often sign consents to participate Idoxuridine in clinical trials with only the most modest appreciation of the risks and disadvantages of participation.17 The ethical consequence is the necessity to be sure that patients as potential research participants have understood the differences between clinical research trials and clinical care. Naturalistic trials Naturalistic trials are either prospective “noninterventional” observational studies of phenomena, eg, realworld selleck chemicals events or conditions, or retrospective analyses of existing data from other studies, eg, follow-ups of treated patients, or routinely documented basic data.