Voluntariness to Consent to Research in a Voluntarily and Involuntarily Hospitalized Psychiatric Population

The purpose of our study was to examine rates of consent to participate in research in voluntarily and involuntarily hospitalized psychiatric patients in order to evaluate factors that may influence the decision to participate in research. We used logistic regression models to evaluate differences and found that involuntary patients were less likely to consent to participate. After adjustment for covariates, we found that consent rates did not differ between the involuntary and voluntary population, but that lower Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores and psychosis negatively affected the decision to consent to research. We discuss the implications of our findings.