תקציר:

Longitudinal clinical trials in psychiatry have used various statistical methods to examine treatment effects. The validity of the inferences depends upon the different method’s assumptions and whether a given study violates those assumptions. The objective of this paper was to elucidate these complex issues by comparing various methods for handling missing data (e.g., last observation carried forward [LOCF], completer analysis, propensity-adjusted multiple imputation) and for analyzing outcome (e.g., end-point analysis, repeated-measures analysis of variance [RM-ANOVA], mixed-effects models [MEMs]) using data from a multi-site randomized controlled trial in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The trial compared the effects of 12 weeks of exposure and ritual prevention (EX/RP), clomipramine (CMI), their combination (EX/RP&CMI) or pill placebo in 122 adults with OCD. The primary outcome measure was the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. For most comparisons, inferences about the r

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