Cassidy E L, Baird E, Sheikh J I
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2001 Spring;9(2):136-40.
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.
临床医生和研究人员都在将重点转向老年患者，以便针对各种精神疾病找到最有效的治疗方法。针对老年患者的临床试验是必要的，因为他们消耗的处方药数量最多。在设计和开展临床研究时存在特殊的挑战和需要考虑的因素。作者回顾了此类研究的各个阶段，包括招募合适的患者以及留住已招募的患者，并以已完成的研究为例提出建议，阐明了被发现最为成功的方法。
