Obtaining outpatient referrals for clinical research.
Two methods of recruiting patients with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) were compared. One hundred general practitioners in the immediate neighbourhood of a major urban hospital were approached for referrals, and an article on generalised anxiety asking for volunteers was placed in the evening newspaper. The former resulted in ten doctor-initiated referrals, two of whom fulfilled DSM-III criteria for GAD. The latter resulted in over 500 volunteers. In a random selection of 136 volunteers who secured their doctors' approval, 56 fulfilled GAD criteria. The majority of the remainder had a depressive illness. The newspaper article was more economical of researchers' time and more successful in finding suitable subjects than directly approaching general practitioners.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria.
J W
JW
Tiller
N
N
Biddle
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D012017:Referral and Consultation
D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents