Truth telling and ethical practice MCQs With Answer

Introduction
Truth telling and ethical practice are central to responsible research and clinical care in pharmacy. For M.Pharm students, understanding when, how and why to communicate accurate information to participants, colleagues and regulators is essential for protecting autonomy, ensuring valid consent, maintaining public trust, and preventing harm. This set of MCQs focuses on practical scenarios and principles — informed consent, therapeutic privilege, deception, confidentiality, adverse event reporting, data integrity, authorship, conflicts of interest and cultural sensitivity. Each question is designed to deepen your ethical reasoning and prepare you for real-world decision-making in research settings and clinical trials. Review explanations after attempting questions to strengthen both knowledge and judgment.

Q1. Which statement best defines truth telling in a research and clinical context?

• Deliberately withholding information to avoid distress
• Providing complete, accurate information to participants about purpose, risks and alternatives
• Only disclosing information that benefits the researcher
• Sharing partial results to maintain participant optimism

Correct Answer: Providing complete, accurate information to participants about purpose, risks and alternatives

Q2. Therapeutic privilege is ethically justifiable when:

• It is used routinely to save time in consent discussions
• Disclosure will predictably and seriously harm the patient’s health and no alternative means of communication exists
• Investigators want to improve recruitment rates
• Family members request omission of information for convenience

Correct Answer: Disclosure will predictably and seriously harm the patient’s health and no alternative means of communication exists

Q3. Deception in a research study may be ethically permissible when:

• It increases study power and is approved only by the principal investigator
• It is essential to study validity, poses minimal risk, and is approved by the ethics committee with debriefing afterward
• Participants are not paying for the study
• It helps conceal industry sponsorship

Correct Answer: It is essential to study validity, poses minimal risk, and is approved by the ethics committee with debriefing afterward

Q4. Which of the following is NOT a required element of valid informed consent?

• Explanation of the purpose, procedures, risks and benefits
• Voluntary participation without coercion
• Researcher’s personal home address
• Opportunity to ask questions and withdraw

Correct Answer: Researcher’s personal home address

Q5. When a significant protocol error has exposed participants to unanticipated risk, the researcher’s ethical obligation is to:

• Delay disclosure until the final study report is published
• Inform affected participants and relevant oversight bodies promptly, and take steps to mitigate harm
• Fix the error silently to avoid reputational damage
• Only inform the sponsor and not participants

Correct Answer: Inform affected participants and relevant oversight bodies promptly, and take steps to mitigate harm

Q6. Breaching confidentiality to warn third parties is justified when:

• The researcher feels uncomfortable about the data
• There is a credible, imminent threat to identifiable individuals and legal or professional duty requires disclosure
• It allows faster publication
• The participant has a stigmatizing condition

Correct Answer: There is a credible, imminent threat to identifiable individuals and legal or professional duty requires disclosure

Q7. According to standard authorship guidelines, which combination of contributions qualifies someone for authorship?

• Funding the project only
• Substantial contributions to conception or design, drafting or critical revision, final approval, and accountability for accuracy
• Collecting samples only
• Providing general supervision without intellectual input

Correct Answer: Substantial contributions to conception or design, drafting or critical revision, final approval, and accountability for accuracy

Q8. What is the best practice for declaring conflicts of interest in research?

• Disclose only direct payments received in the past month
• Disclose all relevant financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work
• Keep conflicts private to protect collaborators
• Only disclose when asked by the sponsor

Correct Answer: Disclose all relevant financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work

Q9. Use of a placebo control in clinical trials is ethically acceptable when:

• An effective standard therapy is withheld without justification
• No proven effective therapy exists or withholding active treatment poses no additional risk and participants give informed consent
• It is less expensive than the active comparator
• Regulators have not reviewed the protocol

Correct Answer: No proven effective therapy exists or withholding active treatment poses no additional risk and participants give informed consent

Q10. Clinical equipoise refers to which concept?

• Investigator certainty that the new treatment is superior
• Genuine uncertainty within the expert clinical community about the comparative therapeutic merits of each arm
• Obligation to give the best-known treatment to all subjects
• Financial balance between treatment arms

Correct Answer: Genuine uncertainty within the expert clinical community about the comparative therapeutic merits of each arm

Q11. Fabrication or falsification of data in research is classified as:

• Acceptable if it helps publish important findings
• Research misconduct that undermines trust and requires investigation
• A minor infraction requiring only internal correction
• Standard practice in early-stage research

Correct Answer: Research misconduct that undermines trust and requires investigation

Q12. When a researcher observes serious misconduct by a supervisor, ethical practice requires:

• Ignoring it to preserve career prospects
• Reporting through appropriate institutional channels and seeking protection from retaliation
• Publicly accusing the supervisor on social media first
• Destroying evidence to avoid conflict

Correct Answer: Reporting through appropriate institutional channels and seeking protection from retaliation

Q13. Serious adverse events (SAEs) in a clinical trial should be reported to the ethics committee and regulator:

• Only at the end of the study
• Promptly, typically within 24–72 hours, according to applicable regulations
• Whenever convenient for the investigator
• Only if the sponsor requests it

Correct Answer: Promptly, typically within 24–72 hours, according to applicable regulations

Q14. Which ethical principle most directly supports obtaining informed consent and respecting participant decisions?

• Non-maleficence
• Respect for autonomy
• Justice
• Beneficence

Correct Answer: Respect for autonomy

Q15. In culturally diverse settings, ethically appropriate truth telling involves:

• Always following the clinician’s personal preference for disclosure
• Assessing the participant’s cultural and individual preferences and appropriately involving family or community while upholding autonomy
• Deferring all disclosure decisions to community leaders
• Providing no information to avoid cultural offense

Correct Answer: Assessing the participant’s cultural and individual preferences and appropriately involving family or community while upholding autonomy

Q16. Withholding an effective therapy for research purposes is ethically permissible when:

• The investigator believes the new therapy is better
• There is scientific justification, clinical equipoise, minimal risk of harm, and fully informed consent from participants
• Sponsors demand faster recruitment
• Participants are not told about available treatments to prevent bias

Correct Answer: There is scientific justification, clinical equipoise, minimal risk of harm, and fully informed consent from participants

Q17. Regarding secondary use and sharing of research data, ethical best practice is to:

• Share identifiable data widely without oversight to accelerate science
• Obtain participant consent for secondary uses when feasible and share only de-identified data under governance safeguards
• Assume consent for any future use if not explicitly refused
• Sell data to third parties for revenue

Correct Answer: Obtain participant consent for secondary uses when feasible and share only de-identified data under governance safeguards

Q18. When conducting research involving minors, assent is required in addition to parental consent when:

• The minor is legally an adult
• The minor is capable of understanding the research and can meaningfully express willingness or refusal
• Only the parent’s consent is ever necessary
• The study involves no interaction with the child

Correct Answer: The minor is capable of understanding the research and can meaningfully express willingness or refusal

Q19. If you discover a substantive error in your published paper affecting results, your ethical duty is to:

• Ignore it to protect your reputation
• Promptly inform the journal and request a correction or retraction as appropriate
• Withdraw all related manuscripts secretly
• Delay action until a rival points it out

Correct Answer: Promptly inform the journal and request a correction or retraction as appropriate

Q20. For secondary analysis of previously collected clinical data, re-consent may be waived by an ethics committee when:

• The analysis involves identifiable private information without protections
• The data are de-identified and the research poses minimal risk and re-consent is impracticable
• The investigator prefers not to contact participants
• The sponsor requests rapid results without oversight

Correct Answer: The data are de-identified and the research poses minimal risk and re-consent is impracticable

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