Community Consultation in Socially Sensitive Research: Lessons From Clinical Trials of Treatments for AIDS

Contends that few studies have more starkly posed the dilemmas in socially sensitive research than the recent and ongoing clinical trials of medications (such as azidothymidine [AZT]) to treat acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). One response to such dilemmas is to include potential participants or surrogates for them in decision making. Although the investigator and relevant regulatory bodies are not absolved of responsibility by community consultation, such a procedure may help to create a partnership between the investigator and participants, consistent with ethical duties of respect for persons, beneficence, and fidelity. Community consultation also may dampen participants' anxiety and increase perceived justice of decisions about the research. Such a procedure has the potential to mitigate ethical problems in research involving a wide variety of socially sensitive topics and in randomized clinical trials of treatments for conditions other than AIDS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)