April 1st: Encouraging recruitment to clinical trials is a frequently reported problem. Challenges related to study design, communication, participants, interventions, outcomes and clinician workload hinder recruitment, and the effectiveness of interventions used by scientists to increase recruitment rates is unknown.
A team of researchers from Ireland, U.K. and U.S. talked about the methodological challenges and issues in recruiting for mental health and substance use disorders trials in primary care at a Boston conference in October 2014. The conference was dedicated to Addiction Health Services Research.
The presentation recounted authors’ experiences of recruiting for clinical trials in primary care. Methodological challenges, such as clarity of instruction, patient characteristics, patient-doctor relationship, effects of intervention on patients and clinic, and personal benefits for clinicians will be described. The authors discussed how these might be used for peer-learning and peer-support in primary care research.
Read more in the conference proceedings published in a recent supplement of the Addiction Science & Clinical Practice journal. http://www.ascpjournal.org/content/10/S1/A21
Addiction Science & Clinical Practice provides a “forum for clinically relevant research and perspectives that contribute to improving the quality of care for people with unhealthy alcohol, tobacco, or other drug use.” Read the published abstract at: http://www.ascpjournal.org/or
watch the conference presentation at: https://prezi.com/qptvun1i0am0/integrating-addiction-medicine-training-into-medical-school-and-residency-curricula/
Henihan, A., Klimas, J., Bury, G., O’Toole, T., Rieckman, T., Shorter, G., & Cullen, W. (2015). Methodological challenges and issues of recruiting for mental health and substance use disorders trials in primary care. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(Suppl 1), A21.