CLINICAL TRIALS IN NEUROLOGY

Abstract

CLINICAL TRIALS IN NEUROLOGY By Roberto J. Guiloff 2001. Heidelberg: L. Springer‐Verlag Price £135. ISBN 1‐85233‐239‐5 As a clinical trials aficionado , I was intrigued to see what this multi‐author book, edited by Roberto Guiloff, would turn out to be. This list of contributors, drawn from both sides of the Atlantic, certainly includes some very distinguished names. The task set for this group of authors was to ‘comprehensively tackle the methodology and design of clinical trials in neurological disease’. I am not sure that target has necessarily been met, but there are certainly many contributions that stand out: Ethical considerations (Hope and Savulescu); Ethics, Outcome Variables and Clinical Scales (Buskens and van Gijn); The Role of Meta‐Analyses (Stewart); Cerebrovascular Disease (Rothwell); Epilepsy (Chadwick and Marson); and Headache (Tfelt‐Hanson and Seidelin), to name but a few. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the book is devoted to randomized trials of drugs, with particular emphasis on trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. This bias towards industry‐sponsored trials coloured both the first half of the book, which deals with general methodological considerations, and the second half of the book, which devotes itself to trials in specific diseases. On the other hand, this is a reality; pharmaceutically sponsored research has been the dominant force, so it …