Should patients with a mental illness be paid to take their medication? This difficult but topical issue is being addressed in a new biomedical ethics project funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Although medication is available for people with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, encouraging some patients to take their drugs regularly for long periods is a significant problem.

Financial incentives could improve compliance, but raise challenging ethical questions. A team led by Professor Stefan Priebe, from the Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry at Barts and The London School of Medicine, will consult patients, carers, healthcare professionals and other key groups to identify their views on the ethical issues.