Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:1159-1160
Copyright © 1997 by American Psychiatric Association
Research without external funding in North American psychiatry
EK Silberman and DA Snyderman
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA 19107-4192, USA.
OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the extent and characteristics of
published psychiatric research from U.S. and Canadian medical schools that
was carried out without external funding. METHOD: They reviewed reports of
unfunded research in 14 psychiatric journals, tabulating methodological
factors and topics of study. They surveyed first authors about their
academic duties and resources used in the studies. RESULTS: Unfunded
studies represented 26% of research reports, were usually prospective, most
commonly dealt with phenomenology/epidemiology or psychopharmacology, used
low levels of technology, and were accomplished on a modest budget of time
and money. CONCLUSIONS: Unfunded studies make a substantial and
economically efficient contribution to psychiatric research. Future
investigations should detail the institutional conditions necessary to
sustain this type of research productivity.
