Spilker and Cramer examined recruitment data from a number of medical trials and found the screening yield depends on the type of trial and subject population sought, ranging from 1 to 6% in prevention trials to 20 to 27% in therapeutic trials. Similar results have been reported in the psychology literature for psychotropic drug trials. However, the range was between 5 and 90%, with about half the investigators reporting less than a 15% enrollment rate from initial contacts. Our recruitment yield (15.9%) is thus similar to other studies recruiting patients with psychiatric conditions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recruitment Outcomes

A total of 911 people contacted the study coordinator. From these initial contacts, 186 (20.4%) were not interested in a study, 165 (18.1%) were rejected (78 during the telephone interview and 87 later), and 530 (58.2%) expressed interest in the study and appeared qualified. Thirty individuals (3.3%) called because they wanted to refer someone else. The frequency of initial contacts, subjects’ interest, rejected recruits, and subjects calling for others are presented in Table 1 for each recruitment method. Of 619 subjects who received the study material, 290 returned the study questionnaire. Two hundred prospective subjects were interviewed, with 166 accepted for participation. Twenty-two subjects (2.4%) withdrew during the study and needed to be replaced. However, only 9 of these 22 subjects actually took the study drug and actually started the study before withdrawing. One hundred forty-four subjects were enrolled for the study, which is 20.7% of the 695 subjects (530 interested ones and 165 rejected ones) who were interested in participating in the study. Similarly, 23.3% of 617 subjects who received the study materials (the questionnaire and the brochure) and 72.0% of screened subjects were enrolled. Of 911 prospective subjects who initially contacted the research coordinator, 15.8% (144/911) were enrolled.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sample

The recruitment goal was 180 subjects with specific phobia of dental injections according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The initial expectations were not met. After 3 years, 108 subjects were enrolled and the goal revised downward to 144. Exclusion criteria were (1) obesity, (2) too young/old, (3) drug contraindications, (4) severe untreated depression or bipolar disorder, (6) unreliable jdid not appear for a screening twice), or (7) could not be contacted after repeated efforts. The 911 subjects described include those who responded to recruitment during 45 months of advertising and recruiting.

Read the rest of this entry »