Extrinsic Factors Influencing Responses to Psychotherapeutic Drugs

Abstract

VARIABILITY in responses to drug treatments plagues the researcher concerned with evaluating therapeutic efficacy of psychotropic drugs as well as the clinician who uses them in practice. Some of this variability is associated with patient characteristics that can be identified empirically. The purpose of this investigation was to define some of the more important extrinsic (nondrug) factors that influence short-term symptom reduction under a variety of different drug treatments. Numerous studies have shown that the nature of presenting psychopathology is related to a variety of historical, social, and cultural factors.^1-4Several studies have been concerned with the prediction of treatment outcome and subsequent course of illness.^5-7Most of the latter have considered prognosis in a broader sense than considered here, such as the number of days back in the community during an extended period.⁸Previous research has suggested that the relevance of