Clinical Trials and Medical Care: Defining the Therapeutic Misconception

Summary Points: key component of informed consent to participate in medical research is the understanding that research is not the same as treatment. , studies have found that some research participants do not appreciate important differences between research and treatment, a phenomenon called “therapeutic misconception. ” consistent definition of therapeutic misconception is missing from the literature, and this hinders attempts to define its prevalence or ways to reduce it. paper proposes a new definition and describes how it can be operationalized.