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Overview
Mental health problems account for a quarter of all physician consultations, and place an enormous financial burden on society. For this reason, the search for effective treatments in psychiatry continues apace. But as they are developed, it is essential that we have effective and rigorous methods of assessing the benefits and safety of new treatments. The randomised controlled trial (RCT) is accepted as being the best method for doing this. In order to understand what does and does not work, mental health professionals need to understand how treatments have been assessed and evaluated.
Clinical Trials in Psychiatry is the first book to explain RCTs for mental health professionals. It starts by discussing why we need trials and why they are the best way of deciding if a treatment works. It then describes the different types of trials, how to analyze the results, and how to conduct a trial.
For anyone working in the mental health field, this book will be an essential source of reference, allowing them to make informed decisions about treatment.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Raj Tummala, MD(Wyeth Pharmaceuticals)Description: This well written review on clinical trial methodology does a very good job of describing how clinical trials are designed and analyzed, thereby assisting clinicians with treatment selection.
Purpose: The primary purpose of this book is to educate the clinician on the need for and design of the randomized clinical trial. Clinicians are faced with new information every day and it can be difficult to decipher which is the best treatment.
Audience: This book is intended for medical students, psychiatric residents, and practitioners of psychiatry as well as any mental health professional who is interested in understanding ways of assessing the benefit and safety of new treatments through clinical trial methodology in psychiatry.
Features: Clinicians are constantly faced with new studies that compare one agent against another, but it's very difficult for the clinician who is not well versed in clinical trial design and analysis to fully understand the risks and benefits of a particular treatment. This book does a commendable job of educating the clinician on clinical trials. The authors start by giving a historical perspective that led to the design of the randomized clinical trial. Design issues of clinical trials are discussed with a special focus on the problems encountered in relation to psychiatry. Statistical analysis with a real life example study is discussed. The authors do a great job of not only explaining the theory of clinical trials but also giving real world clinical examples. Information is presented in tables, graphs, and charts. The illustrations could have been clearer. The authors list three pertinent appendixes that cover the management of the trials along with the relevant software.
Assessment: In the world of "me too" treatments, this book does an excellent job of explaining and analyzing research methodologies that will assist the clinician in better treatment selection.
3 Stars from Doody