Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:06:42.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recruiting patients for drug trials: a difficult task

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

U. Skerritt ,
B. Pitt ,
S. Armstrong  and
A. O'Brien
U. Skerritt*
Affiliation:
Park Royal Centre for Mental Health, Acton Lane, London NW10 7NS
B. Pitt
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Old Age Psychiatry, St Charles' Hospital, London W10 6DZ
A. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Therapeutic Research Unit for the Elderly, Hammersmith Hospital, London
*
∗Correspondence
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In successfully recruiting patients for drug trials in dementia the Therapeutic Research Unit for the Elderly (TRUE) had referrals from various sources. The local Memory Clinic (MC) provided 38 patients for screening of which 31 (81%) were recruited, 75% of the overall number recruited. This number was small (n=41) despite various efforts and does not reflect the time invested and amount of contact work with GPs, out-patient departments and other psychiatric services.

The memory clinic provides a source of recruitment of patients for drug trials as well as services for those who do not qualify for such trials. But recruiting without the aid of a memory clinic is difficult and time-consuming and new approaches must be found.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 12 , December 1996 , pp. 708 - 710
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

Berg, L., Hughes, C. P., Coben, L. A., et al (1982) Mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type: research diagnostic criteria, recruitment and description of study population. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 45, 962–968.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chatellier, G. & Lacomblez, L. (1990) Tacrine (tetrahydroaminoacridine; THA) and leicithin in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type: a multi-centre trial. Group Francai d'etude de la tetrahydroaminoacridine. British Medical Journal 300, 495–499.Google Scholar
Eagger, S. A., Levy, R. & Sahakian, B. J. (1991) Tacrine in Alzheimer's disease, Lancet 337, 989–992.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folstein, M., Folstein, S. & McHughs, P. (1975) The “Mini-Mental State”: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinic. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.Google Scholar
Kelly, C. A., Harvey, R. J., Stevens, S. J., et al (1995) Specialist Memory Clinic: The experience at the Hammersmith Hospital. Facts and Research in Gerontology, 1, 21–30.Google Scholar
Levy, M., Mohs, R., Rosen, W., et al (1982) Research subject recruitment for gerontological studies of pharmacological agents. Neurobiological Aging, 3, 77–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholl, C. G. (1995) Mild Memory Impairment. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 8, 258–263.Google Scholar
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1993) 1991 Census Report for Great Britain. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Philpot, M. P. & Levy, R. (1987) A memory clinic for the early diagnosis of dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2, 195–200.Google Scholar
Stevens, S., Pitt, B., Nicholl, C., et al (1992) Language assessment in a memory clinic. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 7, 45–51.Google Scholar
Wilcock, G. K., Ashworth, D. L., Langfield, J. A., et al (1994) Detecting patients with Alzheimer's disease suitable for drug treatment: comparison of three methods of assessment British Journal of General Practice, 44, 40–33.Google Scholar
Williams, D. E., Vitiello, M. V., Ries, R. K., et al (1988) Successful recruitment of elderly community-dwelling subjects for Alzheimer's disease research. Journal of Gerontology, 43, 69–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.