Topics: Practice Tools and Tips | Understanding Psychiatric Research

In this article, guest author Jeffrey S. Barkin, MD, describes an approach to reading journal literature designed to derive the most useful information in the least amount of time.

Topics: Understanding Psychiatric Research

You won’t get very far into any journal before you start reading about statistical significance, and its close sibling, 95% confidence intervals. But what do these terms mean, and how do they help us draw conclusions about studies?

Topics: Antidepressants

Dr. Oransky, as Deputy Editor of The Scientist, I know that you spend a great deal of time looking at medical statistics, and you do an excellent job of making these concepts understandable in your column in CNS News, Statistically Speaking.

Topics: Natural Medications

Vitamin E, recommended variously for preventing cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and tardive dyskinesia, has taken quite a drubbing in recent years. Recent results from Harvard’s Women's Health Study have put another nail in its coffin.

Topics: PTSD

Guanfacine is an alpha-2 agonists approved for the treatment of hypertension, but commonly prescribed for posttraumatic stress disorder. Like clonidine, another alpha-2 agonist, guanfacine is believed to decrease norepinephrine release from noradrenergic neurons during states of heightened arousal.

Topics: Substance Abuse

We have no effective treatment for severe amphetamine dependence. Now, a study from Finland points to an obvious candidate treatment for those meeting DSMIV criteria for intravenous amphetamine dependence. Patients were randomly assigned to Abilify (aripiprazole--15 mg/day), Concerta (methylphenidate controlled release--54 mg/day) or placebo for 20 weeks.

Recently, the FDA approved the Amplichip CYP450 Test (from Roche Diagnostics), which is a device allowing laboratories to quickly find out whether your patient metabolizes drugs too slowly or too quickly.