Clinical Trials in Psychopharmacology. A Better Brain

Although clinical trials were virtually unheard of in psychiatry for many years, they are now the gold standard for judging whether drugs are safe and useful. But should they be? What is the true status of clinical trials? Even when they ostensibly demonstrate a benefit of a certain treatment, the strict patient selection criteria, poor compliance and high drop-out rate leave the conclusions open to question. Are the new treatments really better or more cost-effective than the old? Do they have fewer side effects? In this book the authors take a critical look at recent developments and present a series of trenchant and challenging observations. Section I examines the sign…