by Nassir Ghaemi | Jan 12, 2022 | Blog posts
The conventional wisdom: CATIE for schizophrenia Here is the official line on the design and results of this study: CATIE was a one year study of schizophrenia, in which a large sample of about 1500 patients were recruited at about 50 clinical trial sites (exact...
by Nassir Ghaemi | Jan 11, 2022 | Blog posts
In the mid-1990s, an incredible thing happened. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) decided to fund major clinical psychopharmacology studies. About 90% of NIMH is for other purposes, so the world of clinical psychopharmacology always has suffered from...
by Nassir Ghaemi | Dec 11, 2021 | Blog posts
The recent VA study on lithium provides a good example about why it is important to analyze research studies for yourself. Don’t rely on what the authors tell you, and don’t rely on the journal reviewers to vet the study sufficiently. The VA study concluded that...
by Nassir Ghaemi | Dec 10, 2021 | Blog posts
Suicide-related outcomes in veterans with major depression or bipolar disorder JAMA Psychiatry, Katz et al, 2021 This recent study reported that lithium did not differ from placebo in prevention of suicide-related outcomes over one year in 519 patients. The study was...
by Nassir Ghaemi | Mar 11, 2019 | Blog posts
What journals should you read? How do you keep up with the scientific literature? The best advice comes from William Osler: Let the old men read the new books; you students should read the journals, and the old books. So that’s the advice, and there are two pieces to...
by Nassir Ghaemi | Mar 11, 2019 | Blog posts
I never have understood clinicians who see clinical research as unrelated or even opposed to what they do. This attitude – that clinical research and clinical practice are opposites – even is enshrined in the US government’s official federal policy regarding research...
