Am J Psychiatry 1983; 140:1205-1207
Copyright © 1983 by American Psychiatric Association
Characteristics of schizophrenic and depressed patients excluded from clinical research
RD Miller, R Strickland, J Davidson and R Parrott
The process of selecting patients for research studies introduces factors
that can bias outcome. The authors compared schizophrenic and depressed
patients accepted for studies on their clinical research unit with patients
admitted to the hospital with the same diagnoses. They found significant
differences between the two groups in age, sex, and legal status. The
authors conclude that many research populations may not be representative
of general patient populations for a number of reasons and argue that
research studies also need to focus on patients who do not meet research
ward criteria.
