Recruitment and retention of elderly patients in clinical trials: issues and strategies.

Clinicians and researchers alike are shifting their focus to elderly patients in order to target the most effective treatments for a variety of psychiatric conditions. Clinical trials with elderly patients are the necessary because they consume the largest number of prescription medications. There are special challenges and considerations in designing and conducting clinical studies. The authors review the various phases of such research, including recruitment of appropriate patients and retention of those enrolled, and they make suggestions, using examples from already completed research studies, illustrating the methods found to be most successful.