Elements of Clinical Research in Psychiatry

Abstract

This book represents a collaboration of four individuals, all of whom are actively engaged in clinical research. James E. Mitchell, M.D., and Ross D. Crosby, Ph.D., worked together at the Uni- versity of Minnesota for several years on various research projects and jointly developed and taught a course on research methodology and design for psychiatric residents. They conceived the idea for this book shortly be- fore Mitchell moved to the University of North Dakota and the Neuropsychi- atric Research Institute in Fargo, North Dakota, and recruited Crosby to come there as well. Mitchell and Crosby asked Stephen A. Wonderlich, Ph.D., already at the University of North Dakota, to become involved in the project. Wonderlich had an active research program established at the Uni- versity of North Dakota and served as a mentor for investigators there. The fourth member of the group, David E. Adson, M.D., was just finishing his residency training at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis when the project started, being retreaded from his earlier life as a family physician. He had developed an interest in clinical research and in human subjects issues and was serving on the Institutional Review Board at the University of Min- nesota. He became the fourth author. He is now on the faculty at the Univer- sity of Minnesota. Although each author was responsible for drafts of individual chapters, this book represents a collaboration because we all read and made extensive revisions of one another’s chapters in an effort to create a succinct, coherent, and readable text. We hope we have communicated a sense of genuine en- thusiasm for clinical research and a sense of enjoyment in what we do. We do clinical research because we believe it is important, and we hope that we con- tribute to the welfare of psychiatric patients through our efforts. We also do clinical research because it is rewarding in several other ways, such as pro- viding a sense of purpose; because it is intellectually stimulating and chal- lenging; and because it gives us the opportunity to work with people whom we both enjoy and admire. We know that most practicing physicians do not imagine research to be exciting, and that is one of the main reasons many avoid it. However, it is exciting for us, and we believe it can be so for many young investigators just starting out.