Ethical considerations and current research practices in adolescent psychosis

Research practices have increasingly moved toward early diagnosis and intervention in individuals with psychotic disorders. This is an important step in providing adequate medical care based on existing evidence to this highly vulnerable group that has often been excluded in the general research of this domain. General ethical questions raised in research with adolescents are, for example, the gray area of informed consent. In view of the slow maturation of the brain continuing until about 25 years of age, this could impede the understanding and judgment in health matters. In addition, several remaining issues are specific to the context of psychosis, such as the impact of the illness on the individual's decision-making capacity, questions concerning stigma related to the diagnosis, or the self-identification of the adolescents with their disorder. In this chapter, we aim to discuss the most important theoretic and practical issues in this sensitive area of research.