BLOGSCAN - Anomalies of ARISE-RD Trial Summarized

On the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry blog, this post summarizes some numerous curious anomalies of the ARISE-RD study of rispiridone, [Risperdal, by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson] which were recently summarized by a letter to the journal Neuropsychopharmacology by Health Care Renewal blogger Bernard Carroll [Carroll B. Effects of risperidone augmentation in patients with treatment-resistant depression: results of open-label treatment followed by double-blind continuation. Neuropsychopharmacology 2007, advance online publication]. This is yet another example of how the design, implementation, analysis and dissemination of clinical research studies may be manipulated by research sponsors who have vested interests in having the studies reflect favorably on the sponsors' products.