Law, ethics and men's ambition in case of Japanese psychiatric brain bank

Abstract

Brain bank is an indispensable research resource for pathophysiological studies of mental illnesses. In Japan, a national law for autopsy and dead body storage has been applied to manage brain bank, though this law is said to need some amendment for research use of human brain materials. In history of Japanese psychiatry, problems of Utsunomiya Hospital, manifested in 1987, caused serious loss of credit on psychiatric research and psychiatric medicine. It was reported that autopsy had been done by no autopsy-qualified individuals for example nurses in Utsunomiya Hospital. Recently, following the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster, Fukushima Psychiatric Brain bank, established in 1997, has continued its activity in spite of lacking an autopsy-qualified researcher among them. This illegality has been concealed for approximately 2 years. Some problems which have disturbed development of psychiatric brain bank and post-mortem brain studies of psychiatric illnesses in Japan were discussed.