Introduction: Early Career Psychiatrists February 2017

Section Contents

A New Prediction Model for Evaluating Treatment-Resistant Depression

Switching to Clozapine Using Immediate Versus Gradual Antipsychotic Discontinuation: A Pilot, Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

Online Exclusives

Association Between Lithium Use and Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

Early Improvement of Specific Symptoms Predicts Subsequent Recovery in Bipolar Depression: Reanalysis of the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) Data

Introduction

Welcome to the Early Career Psychiatrists section of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry! As we highlight the work of individuals who are in the early phase of a career in academic psychiatry, we feature research that will move the field forward.

Two of the articles this month focus on identifying predictors of mood outcome in depression and bipolar disorder. Kautzky et al used machine-learning techniques to identify predictors of remission of depression, as well as predictors of treatment-resistant depression. Mizushima and colleagues performed a secondary analysis on data from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder to identify specific depressive symptoms that could predict durable recovery from bipolar depression. Understanding how extant datasets can be used to identify such clinical predictors is an important step in moving toward personalized medicine.

Additionally, Takeuchi and colleagues present the results of an 8-week, double-blind, randomized controlled pilot trial testing the difference in clinical outcome between immediate and gradual discontinuation of clozapine, and Cheng et al describe a study using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to identify the risk of Alzheimer’s disease with lithium use.

In showcasing these articles, our aim is to encourage the junior investigators in the audience to pursue important, groundbreaking work.

Erika F. H. Saunders, MD

[email protected]