What are some of the ethical issues that impede hypothesis-testing in the psychiatric clinic?
Scolnick: I don’t think they’re special to this field. Clinical research studies require clear informed consent forms, and protocols need to be evaluated in advance by institutional review boards. The special problem in studying brain or behavioral diseases is whether the patient is competent to understand the form and sign it or whether someone else representing the patient needs to do it. I think that’s the more unique part of this field. Coyle: I would agree with that. I think a very special challenge would be autism, where the symptom onset is typically in the second year of life. There’s growing evidence from behavioral and educational intervention research that the earlier the intervention is brought to bear, the better the outcome. If we’re going to think about potential pharmacological interventions to treat autism, we’re going to be presented with special challenges about how do you do this in very young children. The final thing I would say is that I don’t see these disorders
