Dr. Chappel, you’ve been involved in addiction medicine for many years. What are some of the major advances that you’ve seen over that time?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

When National Public Radio’s Science Friday devotes most of a program to a psychiatric study, it must be newsworthy. The STAR*D study got this special treatment recently, with Ira Flato interviewing John Rush about the ins and outs of the NIMH-funded project.

Because the first results from STAR*D make antidepressants look less powerful than we might have hoped, researchers have emphasized another aspect of the study – namely, that it represents a system that allows us to bring research techniques into our practices. A review of the STAR*D treatment manual is a useful exercise.

Dr. Rush, thanks for agreeing to help us understand the STAR*D trial. You were the overall principal investigator of what I believe was the largest study in history comparing different antidepressants. Looking at the first set of results, are you encouraged by the findings?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

There are several natural treatments out there that may be helpful in psychiatry. Recently, the British Journal of Psychiatry published a review of “complementary medicines in psychiatry,” (Br J Psychiatry 2006;188:109-121). Based on this paper and our own review of recent better quality studies, TCPR offers the following list of potentially useful natural treatments.

A number of natural treatments have been subjected to the same kinds of rigorous double blind studies required of conventional medications and they have fared poorly. Four of the most commercially popular of these treatments have received particularly harsh treatment from the scientific method.

Dr. Mischoulon, thank you for returning to the pages of The Carlat Psychiatry Report. I know that since our last interview, you have been involved in studying the use of acupuncture in psychiatry. Tell us about that.

Andrew Weil, M.D., who founded and directs the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona’s Health Sciences Center in Tucson, has become the symbol of alternative medicine gone mainstream.