Practical Drug Evaluation Method

Abstract

THE USE OF psychopharmacologic agents has assumed a prominent role in the treatment of patients with emotional disturbances. Published reports of well-controlled studies of these drugs are largely limited to psychiatric inpatients, with a noteworthy paucity of satisfactory studies of their use in outpatients. Among other factors, it has been so difficult to accumulate a sufficient population of suitable outpatients who will complete a study of more than one or two week's duration that satisfactory studies, with few exceptions, have been limited to very large clinics in metropolitan centers or to cumbersome difficult collaborative studies.^1-3 Nevertheless, the widespread use of psychoactive drugs in outpatient medical practice demands that continued efforts be made to develop methods for adequately controlled studies in diverse populations since simple clinical impressions have been notoriously unreliable in the past.⁴ In an effort to make possible early clinical evaluations