CAMARILLO : Patient Consent Policy Investigated

State officials said Thursday they are investigating complaints that Camarillo State Hospital did not obtain proper consent from patients to do research using drugs to treat schizophrenia.

John White, the executive secretary of the state’s Health and Welfare Agency Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects, which is leading the review, said the complaints center on allegations that consent forms failed to include descriptions of alternative-treatment drugs.

White said there is a section on the consent form that lists alternative treatments but added that “it could probably be strengthened.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles public guardian’s office is no longer allowing patients from Los Angeles County to take part in psychiatric research at Camarillo and other state hospitals, White said.

“I was told that it was an internal review [of the Los Angeles mental health system] and not related to specific problems,” White said.

But Bob Aller of Los Angeles, who is with Patients Rights Network, said Los Angeles County officials told him they were concerned about the consent issue.

“When you fail to describe alternative treatments, it means your informed consent is a mere piece of paper,” said Aller, whose son suffers from schizophrenia. His son did not participate in the Camarillo schizophrenia research, which began in 1994.

The public guardian’s office could not be reached for comment.

White said he expects to wrap up the review of the Camarillo facility in the next month.