Presence of psychiatric morbidity and regrets about participation in trauma-related research-a pilot study

Little is known about the characteristics of individuals who regret their participation in trauma-related research. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate (1) regret after participating in a longitudinal study after a burn and (2) associations with psychiatric morbidity prior to the burn.

Participants were recruited from a longitudinal study after a burn involving interviews, questionnaires, and psychological testing. Forty-two participants answered questions about regret and positive/negative consequences of participation.

Thirty-eight participants reported no regret, while 3 reported the lowest level of regret (1 on a scale of 0-4). All 3 patients with slight regret had psychiatric morbidity prior to the burn. Among the 38 patients without regrets, 23 had prior psychiatric morbidity. Two individuals reported negative consequences of participation, both indicating that the study had elicited negative emotions.

Regret and perceived negative consequences were infrequent. The results suggest that a longitudinal trauma-related research protocol is well tolerated by most patients with burns, despite the presence of prior psychiatric morbidity.