Aripiprazole versus haloperidol treatment in early-stage schizophrenia.

We conducted a secondary analysis of a completed study of the differential efficacy and side effects of aripiprazole versus haloperidol in early-stage schizophrenia (ESS), a subpopulation of patients which does not include first episode or chronic patients. A subpopulation of 360 individuals with ESS were identified from a randomized, multi-center, double-blind study of 1294 individuals with schizophrenia at different stages of illness who were randomized to treatment with aripiprazole (ESS = 237) or haloperidol (ESS = 123) for one year. The primary outcome measure was response rate based on a 50% reduction of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total scores.

Teaching trainees to negotiate research collaborations with industry: a mentorship model.

Research collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry can offer valuable opportunities for academic psychiatrists to gain access to important resources. Such relationships, however, often produce significant conflicts of interest, and recent attention has focused on the ways in which these conflicts can compromise research integrity. Psychiatric residents generally receive little education about industry-academia interactions.

Adverse cardiac effects associated with clozapine.

Objective: To review the published literature on serious adverse cardiac events associated with the atypical antipsychotic agent, clozapine, and to make recommendations for cardiac assessment of candidates for clozapine treatment and for monitoring of cardiac status after treatment is initiated.

Data Sources: We searched the PubMed and MEDLINE databases for articles published from 1970 to 2004 that contain the keywords "clozapine and myocarditis," "clozapine and cardiomyopathy," "clozapine and cardiotoxicity," "clozapine and sudden death" or "clozapine and mortality." We also manually searched the bibliographies of these articles for related sources.