[Provides a guide to self-treatment as ethically acceptable compensation for having participated in a psychiatry...

Due to ethical constraints imposed by Research Ethics Board, it may be difficult to offer participants adequate compensations for their involvement in the study, or compensations that do not have a coercive impact on the participant's ability to refuse to participate. The current study aims at providing empirical data supporting an innovative solution: the provision of a self-help treatment manual. The samples consists of 33 adults (24 females, 9 males) aged between 20 and 59 and all suffering from pathological fear of heights. After participating in an experimental study, participants received a self-help manual to treat their acrophobia on their own. The severity of their claustrophobia was measured before and six months after participants were instructed on how to use the self-help book as a compensatory measure for their participation. Data also suggests that the participants were satisfied with the help provided in the self-treatment manual and that this is perceived in a positive way. To sum up, this study is not an outcome study for a new form of therapy; it simply offers researchers data supporting the use of an alternative compensatory measure. Indeed, using a self-help book represents an interesting solution.