Posted by SLS on May 12, 2009, at 12:13:23
In reply to Re: Antidepressants Hardly Help ( Time Magazine), posted by SLS on May 12, 2009, at 11:53:24
I apologize. I see that the article does provide some important information regarding selection criteria. However, it would be nice to interview a series of clinical investigators or the FDA as to why these criteria remain in place, even though it is my contention that in real life, such screening processes are not employed strictly enough.
When you want to find out if a drug will treat a disease, you need to be sure that the subjects you select have the disease in the first place. For now, the exclusive selection criteria are the best these studies have come up with to help insure a valid study population. There is no biological test that a consensus of researchers has determined is specific enough to effectively identify MDD. Not yet. Soon. In the meantime, it is easier to use symptom severity as a guideline to choose subjects.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:895119
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090505/msgs/895361.html