Introduction. Positive attitudes of people with mental disorders towards participation in research are one of the conditions for development of psychiatry. Knowledge of the respondents’ attitudes and motives influencing their decisions can contribute to improving the quality of research. Aim. To assess the attitude of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) towards participation in psychiatric research. Material and methods. The study involved 100 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (59 women, 41 men) aged 18−68 years. The Hamburg Attitudes to Psychiatric Research Questionnaire (HAPRQ) was used to evaluate attitudes. Results. All respondents accepted research in psychiatry. From 88% to 100% of patients accepted 14 out of 15. types of investigations. Respondents less commonly accepted family members included in the research (71%). From 92% to 98% declared participation in the study using 5 out of 6. methods mentioned above, mainly the questionnaire (98%) and the interview (96%). 80% of patients were ready to be involved in drug-related studies. The most frequently cited reasons for participating in research were: helping other people (98%) and clinicians (92%), receiving sufficient information about the study (90%) and about results (86%), and the least frequent -getting paid (25%). However, the most frequent reason for refusing to participate in the research were: violation of privacy (63%) and rules of personal data protection (58%). In the opinion of the most numerous group, patients with chronic symptoms (98%), mild symptoms (87%) and treated in the past (84%) could take part in the research. According to 54% of the respondents, people with severe mental illnesses and currently in poor mental health should not participate in the study. Conclusions. The vast majority of people with bipolar disorder have positive attitudes towards research in psychiatry. Patients’ opinions should be taken into account when setting up research procedures.

Key words: medical research, mental disorders, bipolar disorder, attitudes of patients.