Please join this virtual talk with Scott Kraly, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience.  

Use of psychiatric medications has increased dramatically during recent decades:  Approximately 35 million Americans are currently prescribed a medication to treat a diagnosed mental health problem.  Is the increasingly common use of these psychoactive drugs warranted based upon scientific evidence?

Evidence-based treatment is guided by results from experiments assessing a drug’s efficacy, and anecdotal evidence acquired from clinical practice.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets the standards for drug development, and regulates access to new medications.  FDA-sanctioned Phase 3 clinical drug trials are methodologically rigorous experiments that assess efficacy and safety of new drugs.  Results of these Phase 3 trials establish the gold-standard evidence to gain FDA approval to market a new medication (or a vaccine).  Do Phase 3 trials provide convincing evidence that predicts that a newly marketed medication will be effective and well tolerated for you or me?  What is not learned about a new medication from Phase 3 trials?  What can be done to strengthen the scientific evidence base?  How does legal off-label prescribing expand and delay development of an evidence base?  Is a newer medication always better than an older one?  In what important ways does post-marketing research improve upon the effectiveness of psychiatric medications?