Placebo response in antipsychotic clinical trials: a meta-analysis.

Importance: Because increasing placebo response rates decrease drug-placebo differences and increase the number of failed trials, it is imperative to determine what is causing this trend.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between antipsychotic medication and placebo response by publication year, and to identify associated study design and implementation variables.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and PubMed were searched to identify randomized clinical trials of antipsychotic medications published from 1960 to July 2013.

Real-life decision making in college students. II: Do individual differences show reliable effects?

First-year undergraduates participated in a short-term longitudinal study of real-life decision making over their first 14 months of college. They were surveyed about 7 different decisions: choosing courses for upcoming terms (on 3 different occasions), choosing an academic major (twice), planning for the upcoming summer, and planning for sophomore-year housing. They also completed a survey of self-reported decision-making styles and the Need for Cognition survey (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) to assess their focus on rationality and enjoyment of analytic thinking.

Real-life decision making in college students. I: Consistency across specific decisions.

First-year undergraduates participated in a short-term longitudinal study of real-life decision making over their first 14 months of college. They were surveyed about 7 different decisions: choosing courses for an upcoming term (3 different terms), choosing an academic major (twice), planning for the upcoming summer, and planning for sophomore-year housing. Participants showed moderate levels of consistency in the options they considered and in the criteria they used to decide between options, with about half of the options or criteria being used at 2 different points on the decision repeatedly studied.

Clinic visits in late-life depression trials: effects on signal detection and therapeutic outcome.

Objective: This meta-analysis investigated how the supportive care provided in antidepressant clinical trials for late-life depression influences response and drop-out rates.

Methods: Medline, PsycINFO, and PubMed were searched to identify trials contrasting antidepressants with placebo or active comparator in outpatients aged at least 60 years with major depressive disorder. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to determine whether treatment assignment (medication versus placebo), study type (placebo-controlled or comparator), study duration, and the number of study visits affected response and attrition rates.

Deconstructing pediatric depression trials: an analysis of the effects of expectancy and therapeutic contact.

Objective: This study investigated how study type, mean patient age, and amount of contact with research staff affected response rates to medication and placebo in acute antidepressant trials for pediatric depression.

Method: Data were extracted from nine open, four active comparator, and 18 placebo-controlled studies of antidepressants for children and adolescents with depressive disorders. A multilevel meta-analysis examined how study characteristics affected response rates to antidepressants and placebo.