TITLE:
Awareness and Perception of Drug Trials among Patients with Mental Disorders
AUTHORS:
Adebayo Sunday Adebisi, Shehu Sale
KEYWORDS:
Awareness, Drug Trials, Mental Disorders, Perception
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.9 No.2,
April
25,
2019
ABSTRACT:
Mental disorders are generally characterized by abnormal thoughts, perceptions and emotions. These abnormalities may make an informed consent more difficult to obtain from psychiatric patients. The implementation of drug trials is being threatened by the decline in its overall frequency generally, especially in Psychiatry. This foretells a dearth of major breakthroughs in pharmacotherapy for psychiatric patients if they are unwilling to present themselves for drug trials. Insight into patient’s awareness and perception of drug trials will enhance the planning, design and implementation of drug trials among this vulnerable subpopulation. This was a cross-sectional study of one hundred patients attending the follow-up clinic of a tertiary psychiatric hospital. A proforma questionnaire to assess awareness and perception of drug trials was administered to participants. About half (51%) were aware of drug trials and 50% of the participants were not willing to participate in a drug trial. Sixty-five percent considered it highly risky to participate. Females were more likely to be unsure whether informed consent will be needed for drug trials. The married were more likely to be unaware of drug trials in clinical research. The unmarried were more likely to be informed about drug trials through the media. Findings are likely to have been influenced by the socio-cultural environment of this study setting. Drug trials among this population require an approach that will create an initial drug trial disorder—sensitive awareness and a design that will ensure that the consent process will take into cognizance the vulnerability of these patients; especially among females.