Research: SCHWEIZER and RICKELS

Listed in Issue 29

Abstract

SCHWEIZER and RICKELS, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104-2649 USA write that new treatment development for anxiety disorder has been sabotaged by a high placebo-response rate, with the result that only one new anxiolytic drug has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration during the past 15 years. The authors review (51 references) the factors contributing to the placebo response in treatment studies of generalised anxiety . They note that since anxiety is a normal emotion, sensitive to a variety of life stresses, it is difficult to achieve the primary goal of a clinical trial, that is to extract the "signal" of a drug effect from the "noise" of symptoms background fluctuations. The authors review data from published research literature and their own research unit regarding trends in placebo-response results.

Background

Methodology

Results

Conclusion

References

Schweizer E and Rickels K. Placebo response in generalized anxiety: its effect on the outcome of clinical trials. J Clin Psychiatry 58 (11): 30-8. 1997.

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