Evidence suggests that research participants often fail to recall much of the information provided during the informed consent process. This study was conducted to determine the proportion of consent information recalled by drug court participants following a structured informed consent procedure and the neuropsychological factors that were related to recall. Eighty-five participants completed a standard informed consent procedure to participate in an ongoing research study, followed by a 17-item consent quiz and a brief neuropsychological battery 2 weeks later. Participants performed (...) within the normal range on most of the neuropsychological measures, although roughly one third showed deficits on measures of executive functioning. Participants failed to recall over 65% of the consent information within 2 weeks of entering the study, and their recall was significantly correlated with verbal IQ, drug problem severity, reading ability, memory, and attention. These factors may be useful in determining whether research participants require enhanced consent procedures. (shrink)

There is a growing consensus among neuroscientists that people can become addicted to food, and that at least some cases of obesity have addiction as their cause. By contrast, the rest of the world continues to see obesity as either a disease of the metabolism, or as a reckless case of self-harm. Among obesity researchers, there has been a lively debate on the issue of whether obesity ought to be considered a disease. Few researchers, however, have suggested that obesity is (...) a disease in the same sense as addiction is usually claimed to be a disease—that is, a disease of behaviour with a neurological cause. In this piece, I review what is now a compelling body of evidence for food addiction, to establish that many or most cases of obesity have addiction at their foundation. I then argue that in spite of this, obesity ought not to be considered a neurobehavioural disease in the sense usually attributed to drug addiction. Given the link between addiction and obesity, this implies that the disease conception of addiction must be abandoned. I conclude by assessing some of the implications this move has for policy and ethics, with regard to both obesity and drug addiction. (shrink)