Mental Health And Ethics

Question 1

Placebo

Answer 1

A fake or false treatment that has no effective component.

Question 2

Informed consent

Answer 2

An ethical principle stating
that a researcher must provide participants with an overview of the nature and risks of being involved in a research study. For participation to occur, a researcher must obtain signed permission from any participants indicating willingness to participate.

Question 3

Placebo effect

Answer 3

An extraneous variable in which participant responses vary due to participant expectations regarding the e ectiveness of a treatment.

Question 4

Experimenter effect

Answer 4

A change in participant behaviour due to the experimenter’s treatment or influence.

Question 5

Single blind procedure

Answer 5

Participants are unaware of whether they are in the control/experimental group.

Question 6

Double blind procedure

Answer 6

Participants and researchers don’t know which group is control or experimental

Question 7

Ethics - 2 roles of the experimenter

Answer 7

No psychological or physical harm

Must be worthwhile

Question 8

Ethics - 6 rights of the participants

Answer 8

Voluntary participation

Informed consent

Deception

Confidentiality

Debriefing

Withdrawal rights

Question 9

Placebos and informed consent

Answer 9

While placebos can make people feel better, the e ect can be small or temporary when compared with a legitimate treatment. An important part of research that involves participants is informed consent, and this cannot really be obtained when there is the deception involved in a placebo- controlled research design.

Question 10

Placebos and no lasting harm

Answer 10

Another problem with placebo treatments in research is that it can sometimes require a participant to go without treatment. Imagine you have a mental disorder such as an anxiety disorder. You volunteer for a trial to test a new medication that is supposed to reduce your symptoms. You later find out that the medication you have been taking is a placebo. How do you feel about this?

Question 11

placebos and rules

Answer 11

In cases where a sound treatment for a mental disorder already exists, the use of a placebo treatment to trial a new treatment can be seen as unethical. This is because medical health professionals are required to provide patients with the best proven treatment available

Question 12

Placebos advantages

Answer 12

However, there are arguments in favour of using placebo treatments in trials, such as that the placebo e ect can still improve patient symptoms and the outcome of the trials can often improve treatment methods overall.