ABSTRACT
The paper reports on the process of patient recruitment for a controlled clinical multicenter study on the treatment of affective disorders. Two thirds of the patients screened did not participate because prophylactic treatment was either unnecessary or not justified for medical reasons. Further, a number of patients equal to that eventually allocated to the trial refused to participate for personal, idiosyncratic reasons. In spite of this, the patients in the trial were very similar to those not participating with respect to relevant variables such as age, sex, number of and intervals between previous episodes or severity of the present episode.
Subject(s)
Affective Disorders, Psychotic/drug therapy , Amitriptyline/administration & dosage , Carbamazepine/administration & dosage , Lithium Carbonate/administration & dosage , Multicenter Studies as Topic , Patient Dropouts/psychology , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , Adult , Affective Disorders, Psychotic/psychology , Bipolar Disorder/drug therapy , Bipolar Disorder/psychology , Depressive Disorder/drug therapy , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Drug Therapy, Combination , Eligibility Determination , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Psychotic Disorders/drug therapy , Psychotic Disorders/psychologyABSTRACT
The use of an ion-selective electrode (ISE) to determine lithium (Li) in routine clinical application was evaluated by repeatedly analyzing reference specimens (precision evaluation) and by comparing blood concentrations in Li-treated patients assessed by ISE and flame emission spectrometry (FES) (correlation and agreement). Precision evaluation was sufficiently high. Li values determined by ISE in venous and capillary whole blood showed high correlations with FES plasma values (correlation coefficients between 0.86 and 0.99). Within the therapeutic range (0.3-1.0 mmole/l Li), agreement was sufficient for venous and less satisfactory for capillary blood (mean differences, FES minus ISE: -0.03 and -0.11 mmole/l Li). Above the therapeutic range, ISE values markedly exceeded FES results.
