Current dissertations

Institute of History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine

Doctoral candidate

Tim Götzelmann

Working title of the dissertation

The spectrum of research ethics challenges in dementia research

Abstract

Background: Research in medicine promotes scientific progress and gives hope for new treatment options in the fight against diseases. In this context, compliance with ethical and moral standards is just as important as technical and methodological aspects in conducting high-quality research. Research into dementia poses particular ethical challenges for researchers, as patients with advanced stages of dementia, for example, can no longer give informed consent to participate in studies.

Objective: To provide a complete and unbiased account of the range of research ethics challenges in relation to dementia research.

Methods: We searched Medline and Googlescholar for relevant literature on dementia research and ethics (published between 2007 and 2017 in English and German). Using qualitative text analysis and normative analysis, the spectrum of research ethical challenges in dementia research is extracted and categorized.

First results: The indicative literature search resulted in the discovery of 62 articles.

Expected new findings:The creation of a spectrum of research ethics challenges in dementia research should result in a systematic overview of the topic. This spectrum can inform researchers, health policy makers, teachers, students and the public about the wide range of topics and form the basis for identifying particularly important key topics. This can raise awareness and knowledge about the range of ethical issues in dementia research and relevant research ethics challenges could be further discussed in the (professional) public. Finally, this could inform guidelines on clinical dementia research.