[Ethics in psychiatric research].

This review presents the results of a book 1 on ethical problems of clinical research in psychiatry and its framework. The requirement of societally necessary research can be satisfied only if every research patient is appropriately protected against risks and burdens. A clinical research intervention is acceptable only if - its benefit-risk-relationship is reasonable and justified, and - the patient's informed consent is valid. Basic and only unsatisfactorily solved questions are related to the capacity to consent and to problems in the evaluation of the benefit-risk-relationship, particularly of individual versus societal benefits and risks.