Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry · Feb 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialNonpharmacological response in hospitalized children with conduct disorder.
There is a paucity of research regarding the effects of hospitalization and/or the response to placebo in children with conduct disorder who are hospitalized for chronic and severe aggression. However, many children with this problem are hospitalized and immediately begin pharmacotherapy. In this report, the effects of hospitalization and placebo administration were examined. ⋯ This finding has important treatment and research implications. Medication to treat aggression should not be initiated immediately upon hospitalization because improvements associated with hospitalization may be attributed inaccurately to pharmacotherapy, resulting in unnecessarily medicating children. A placebo baseline period is essential to decrease the risk of a type II error in pharmacological research concerning aggression.