Stakeholders in psychiatry and their attitudes toward receiving pertinent and incident findings in genomic research.

1st October 2017

The GenomEthics survey was translated into Danish and delivered to psychiatric patients in Denmark by researchers from The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research (iPSYCH), Aarhus, Denmark. The findings from this study are remarkably similar to the main findings from the GenomEthics study, thus supporting the validity of the survey items.

Abstract

Increasingly more psychiatric research studies use whole genome sequencing or whole exome sequencing. Consequently, researchers face difficult questions, such as which genomic findings to return to research participants and how. This study aims to gain more knowledge on the attitudes among potential research participants and health professionals toward receiving pertinent and incidental findings. A cross-sectional online survey was developed to investigate the attitudes among research participants toward receiving genomic findings. A total of 2,637 stakeholders responded: 241 persons with mental disorders, 671 relatives, 1,623 blood donors, 74 psychiatrists, and 28 clinical geneticists. Stakeholders wanted both pertinent findings (95%) and incidental findings (91%) to be made available for research participants. The majority (77%) stated that researchers should not actively search for incidental findings. Persons with mental disorders and relatives were generally more positive about receiving any kind of findings than clinical geneticists and psychiatrists. Compared with blood donors, persons with mental disorders reported to be more positive about receiving raw genomic data and information that is not of serious health importance. Psychiatrists and clinical geneticists were less positive about receiving genomic findings compared with blood donors. The attitudes toward receiving findings were very positive. Stakeholders were willing to refrain from receiving incidental information if it could compromise the research. Our results suggest that research participants consider themselves as altruistic participants. This study offers valuable insight, which may inform future programs aiming to develop new strategies to target issues relating to the return of findings in genomic research.

• Full article on Wiley's website

Sundby A, Boolsen MW, Burgdorf KS... Middleton A (2017) Stakeholders in psychiatry and their attitudes toward receiving pertinent and incident findings in genomic research. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, vol. 173, issue 10, pp 2649-2658, October

Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.a.38380