Should You Condone or Condemn Self-experimentation?

Philip R. Cohen, MD

Dr. Cohen is from the University of Houston Health Center, Texas; the Department of Dermatology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; and the Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston.

Dr. Cohen reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

Medical experimentation occurs daily and is essential to the development of new therapies. Medical experimentation also includes self-experimentation. Self-experimentation in dermatology is well-documented; indeed many investigators have subsequently published their own observations.