title: Understanding the Outcomes Measures used in Huntington Disease Pharmacological Trials: A Systematic Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The identification of the gene mutation causing Huntington disease has raised hopes for new treatments to ease symptoms and slow functional decline. As such, there has been a push towards designing efficient pharmacological trials (i.e., drug trials), especially with regard to selecting outcomes measures that are both brief and sensitive to changes across the course of the disease, from subtle prodromal changes, to more severe end-stage changes.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Recently, to aid in efficient development of new HD research studies, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) published recommendations for measurement selection in HD. While these recommendations are helpful, many of the recommended measures have little published data in HD. As such, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify the most common outcomes measures used in HD clinical trials.
  
  
  METHODS
  Major medical databases, including PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, were used to identify peer-reviewed journal articles in English from 2001 through April 2013; 151 pharmacological trials were identified.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of HD clinical trials employed clinician-reported outcomes measures (93%); patient reported outcome measures (11%) and observer reported outcome measures (3%) were used with much less frequency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We provide a review of the most commonly used measures across these trials, compare these measures to the clinical recommendations made by the NINDS working groups, and provide recommendations for selecting measures for future clinical trials that meet the Food and Drug Administration standards.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Noelle E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Carlozzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miciura
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Migliore
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Praveen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dayalu
mesh_terms: D002491:Central Nervous System Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D002491:Central Nervous System Agents
keywords: Huntington disease; clinical trials; outcomes measures