NYU Press The Handbook of Psychopharmacology Trials: An Overview of Scientific, Political, and Ethical Concerns

Each year pharmaceutical companies invest billions of dollars in clinical trials of drugs used for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. Due to enormous progress in basic pharmaceutical research in recent years, controlled tests of new medications are flourishing and these trials have rapidly become an intense focus of practical medical research. Aware of the complexities presented in the design, execution, and evaluation of clinical trials, Marc Hertzman and Douglas E. Feltner bring together a collection of essays that dissect the scientific, psychosocial, political, and ethical concerns that must be examined for any CNS trial. The internationally known contributors examine concerns about ethics and cost; the FDA and its regulatory impact; and the implementation of a variety of trials, for disorders such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, eating disorders, insomnia, and aggression. The editors carefully consider important social issues including the considerations related to women's special needs; and the relative merits of psychotherapy and medications. The Handbook of Psychopharmocology Trials provides an up-to- date and stimulating exploration of important issues on the subject of CNS Clinical trials. Review "A brave and wide-ranging work that synthesizes the increasing knowledge about African and American links and expands that knowledge considerably in new and convincing ways."-Peter H. Wood, Duke University "Historians of African Americans have known for a long time that they were brought to the Americas to labor, but until Frederick Knight's comprehensive and fascinating account, that labor had never been fully examined. By looking at African labor and especially agricultural skills, Knight shows that a great deal of the work that African Americans did as slaves had its roots in African agricultural processes. Knight's chapter on the production of indigo is particularly telling on this point, and shows that Africans' skill was perhaps as important as their muscle in furthering the New World's agricultural development. While others have explored elements of the role of Africans as skilled farmers before, Knight has brought all this and more together in a compelling and convincing re-evaluation of Africans and their descendants' role in American life."-John K. Thornton, author of "Africa and Africans in the Formation of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680" "Working the Diaspora is a welcome contribution to the study of labor and culture under slavery. Spanning the colonial through the antebellum period, Knight argues that Africans brought much more than brute strength to their work in sugar, rice, tobacco and indigo fields. By carefully contextualizing his study of labor practices in the Americas in the African past, Knight offers a compelling argument for the crucial role of African knowledge in the building of staple crop agriculture in the Americas. In a study that is archivally deep and analytically rich, Knight significantly expands our understanding of the role of African expertise in the creation of the black Atlantic."-Jennifer L. Morgan, author of "Laboring Women: Gender and Reproduction in New World Slavery""The book's major scholarly contributions include a diaspora approach linking both sides of the Atlantic, an emphasis on the mental and human dimensions of slave workers, and evidence for multiple contributions of slave workers in making the American plantation."-CHOICE,"This volume is a significant contribution to a number of different fields, and it is on the cutting edge of Atlantic history, exploring an almost seamless integration of African, African American, and indeed American life."-Simon P. Newman, American Historical Review About the Author Marc Hertzman is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland, and Medical Director of Psychiatry at the North Arundel Hospital in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Douglas E. Feltner is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute po