Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T16:12:16.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prediction: Nonsense or Hope?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Cyril Höschl*
Affiliation:
3rd School of Medicine, Charles University, Ruská 87, 10000 Praha 10, Czech Republic; and Prague Psychiatric Centre

Abstract

Psychiatry and psychopharmacology are no longer aiming to make a decisive breakthrough at the end of the century. Rather than seeking explanations, research workers are looking for ‘predictions’. Three main types of prediction are emerging: a tautological, a heuristic, and an irrelevant one. Few predictions found in the recent literature can be marked as ‘logical’ ones. Nevertheless, predictions play two important roles: they generate new hypotheses that can be falsified in properly designed scientific experiments; they also may serve to falsify given hypotheses. The main recent findings on predictions in psychiatry are briefly summarised.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balon, R. (1991) Monoamine specificity of antidepressants and prediction of therapeutic response. Encephale, 17, spec. no. 1, 121122.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. & Weishaar, M. E. (1990) Suicide risk assessment and prediction. Crisis, 11, 2230.Google Scholar
Black, D. W., Goldstein, R. B., Nasrallah, A., et al (1991) The prediction of recovery using a multivariate model in 1471 depressed inpatients. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 241, 4145.Google Scholar
Blumenthal, S. J. (1990) Youth suicide: risk factors, assessment, and treatment of adolescent and young adult suicidal patients. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 13, 511556.Google Scholar
Brotman, A. W., Falk, W. E. & Gelenberg, A. J. (1987) Pharmacologic treatment of acute depressive subtypes. In Psychopharmacology: The Third Generation of Progress (ed. Meltzer, H. Y.), pp. 10311040. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Bulik, C. M., Carpenter, L. L., Kupfer, D. J., et al (1990) Features associated with suicide attempts in recurrent major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 18, 2937.Google Scholar
Buller, R., Maier, W., Goldenberg, I. M., et al (1991) Chronology of panic and avoidance, age of onset in panic disorder, and prediction of treatment response. A report from the Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 240, 163168.Google Scholar
Burkovski, G. V., Vuks, A. I., Iovlev, B. V., et al (1990) Study of the effectiveness of individual computer-assisted prediction of the results of rehabilitation treatment of patients with schizophrenia (trans.). Zhurnal Nevropatologii i Psikhiatrii, 90, 9499.Google Scholar
Campbell, M., Locascio, J. J., Choroco, M. C., et al (1990) Stereotypies and tardive dyskinesia: abnormal movements in autistic children. Psychopharmacological Bulletin, 26, 260266.Google Scholar
Chelune, G. J., Naugle, R. I., Luders, H., et al (1991) Prediction of cognitive change as a function of preoperative ability status among temporal lobectomy patients seen at 6-months follow-up. Neurology, 41, 399404.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1990) The prediction of death from cancer by means of personality/stress questionnaire: too good to be true? Perception and Motor Skills, 71, 216218.Google Scholar
Freidman, L., Knutson, L., Shurell, M., et al (1991) Prefrontal sulcal prominence is inversely related to response to clozapine in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 29, 865877.Google Scholar
Friedel, R. O. (1983) Clinical predictors of treatment response: an update. In The Affective Disorders (eds J. M. David & J. W. Maas), pp. 379384. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, R. B., Black, D. W., Nasrallah, A., et al (1991) The prediction of suicide. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of a multivariate model applied to suicide among 1906 patients with affective disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 418422.Google Scholar
Grossarth-Maticek, R. & Eysenck, H. J. (1990) Coffee drinking and personality as factors in the genesis of cancer and coronary heart disease. Neuropsychobiology, 23, 153159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guldberg, C. A., Dahl, A. A., Hansen, H., et al (1990) Predictive value of the four good prognostic features in DSM-III-R schizophreniform disorder. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 82, 2325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haaga, D. A., DeRubeis, R. J., Stewart, B. L., et al (1991) Relationship of intelligence with cognitive therapy outcome. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 29, 277281.Google Scholar
Hatch, J. P., Schoenfeld, L. S., Boutros, N. N., et al (1991) Anger and hostility in tension-type headache. Headache, 31, 302304.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1959) The assessment of anxiety state by rating. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 32, 5055.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. (1967) Development of a rating scale for primary depressive illness. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 6, 278296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hegerl, U. & Herrmann, W. M. (1990) Event-related potentials and the prediction of differential drug response in psychiatry. Neuropsychobiology, 23, 99108.Google Scholar
Herzog, T., Hartman, A., Sandholz, A., et al (1991) Prognostic factors in outpatient psychotherapy of bulimia. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 56, 4855.Google Scholar
Hickie, I., Parsonage, B. & Parker, G. (1990) Prediction of response to electroconvulsive therapy: preliminary validation of a sign-based typology of depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 6571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Klerman, G. L., Andreasen, N. C., et al (1986) Psycho-social predictors of chronicity in depressed patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 648654.Google Scholar
Holbach, P. H. D. von (1770) Systeme de la Nature ou des Lois du Monde Physique et du Monde Moral. London.Google Scholar
Jarrett, R. B., Rush, A. J., Khatami, M., et al (1990) Does the pretreatment polysomnogram predict response to cognitive therapy in depressed outpatients? A preliminary report. Psychiatry Research, 33, 285299.Google Scholar
Javaid, J. I., Janicak, P. G., Hedeker, D., et al (1991) Steady-state plasma level prediction for haloperidol from a single test dose. Psychopharmacological Bulletin, 27, 8388.Google ScholarPubMed
Jonsson, H. & Nyman, A. K. (1991) Predicting long-term outcome in schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 83, 342346.Google Scholar
Joyce, P. R. & Paykel, E. S. (1989) Predictors of drug response in depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 8999.Google Scholar
Kant, I. (1781) Kritik der reinen Vernunft. In Kants Werke (ed. Cassirer, E.), 11 vols, 1912-23. Berlin: Reimer.Google Scholar
Kay, S. R. & Murrill, L. M. (1990) Predicting outcome of schizophrenia: significance of symptom profiles and outcome dimensions. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31, 91102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keepers, G. A. & Casey, D. E. (1991) Use of neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal symptoms to predict future vulnerability to side effects. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 8589.Google Scholar
Kocsis, J. H. (1990) New issues in the prediction of antidepressant response. Psychopharmacological Bulletin, 26, 4953.Google Scholar
Kravitz, H. M., Fogg, L., Fawcett, J., et al (1990a) Antidepressant or antianxiety? A study of the efficacy of antidepressant medication. Psychiatry Research, 32, 141149.Google Scholar
Kravitz, H. M., Edwards, J. H., Fawcett, J., et al (1990b) Challenging the amphetamine challenge test: report of an antidepressant treatment study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 20, 121128.Google Scholar
La Mettrie, J. O. de (1747) L'Homme machine. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1960).Google Scholar
May, M. (1990) Clinical prediction of response to lithium prophylaxis in bipolar patients: the importance of the previous pattern of course of the illness. Clinical Neuropharmacology, 13 (suppl. 1), 866870.Google Scholar
Milis, P. J., Dimsdale, J. E., Ziegler, M. G., et al (1990) Beta-adrenergic receptors predict heart rate reactivity to a psychosocial stressor. Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 621623.Google Scholar
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Kelly, M. W., et al (1990) Pharmacokinetic protocol for predicting plasma haloperidol concentration. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10, 207212.Google Scholar
Miller, F., Tanenbaum, J. H., Griffin, A., et al (1991) Prediction of treatment response in bipolar, manic disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 21, 7577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miranda, J., Perez-Stable, E. J., Munoz, R. F., et al (1991) Somatization, psychiatric disorder, and stress in utilization of ambulatory medical services. Health Psychology, 10, 4651.Google Scholar
Mueser, K. T., Bellack, A. S., Douglas, M. S., et al (1991) Prediction of social skill acquisition in schizophrenic and major affective disorder patients from memory and symptomatology. Psychiatry Research, 37, 281296.Google Scholar
Neill, D., Vogel, G., Hagler, M., et al (1990) Diminished sexual activity in a new animal model of endogenous depression. Neuroscience Biobehavioral Reviews, 14, 7376.Google Scholar
Ogden, J. & Wardle, J. (1990) Control of eating and attributional style. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 29, 445446.Google Scholar
Pearlson, G. D., Kim, W. S., Kubos, K. L., et al (1989) Ventricle-brain ratio, computed tomographic density, and brain area in 50 schizophrenics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 690697.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearson, M. J. & Girling, A. J. (1990) The value of the Claybury Selection Battery in predicting benefit from group psychotherapy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 384388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piper, W. E., Azim, H. F., Joyce, A. S., et al (1991) Quality of object relations versus interpersonal functioning as predictors of therapeutic alliance and psychotherapy outcome. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 179, 432438.Google Scholar
Reinink, E., Bouhuys, N., Wirz-Justice, A., et al (1990) Prediction of the antidepressant response to total sleep deprivation by diurnal variation of mood. Psychiatry Research, 32, 113124.Google Scholar
Rosoff, S. M. & Leone, M. C. (1991) The public prestige of medical specialties: overviews and undercurrents. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 321326.Google Scholar
Smith, L. W., Patterson, T. L. & Grant, I. (1990) Avoidant coping predicts psychological disturbance in the elderly. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 178, 525530.Google Scholar
Sotsky, S. M., Glass, D. R., Shea, M. T., et al (1991) Patient predictors of response to psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy: findings in the NIMH Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 9971008.Google Scholar
Stabenau, J. R. (1990) Additive independent factors that predict risk for alcoholism. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 51, 164174.Google Scholar
Swartz, T. M. (1991) Drug dose prediction with flexible test doses. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 31, 662667.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vogel, G., Neill, D., Kors, D., et al (1990) REM sleep abnormalities in a new animal model of endogenous depression. Neuroscience Biobehavioral Review, 14, 7783.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Prusoff, B. A. & Klerman, G. L. (1978) Personality and the prediction of long-term outcome in depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 797800.Google Scholar
Young, M. A. & Fogg, L. F. (1990) Predicting response to treatment: differentiating active-factor and non-specific effects. Statistical Medicine, 9, 253261.Google Scholar
Zemlan, F. P., Thienhaus, O. J. & Garver, D. L. (1990) Length of psychiatric hospitalization and prediction of antipsychotic response. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 14, 1324.Google Scholar
Zerssen von, D. & Possl, J. (1990) The premorbid personality of patients with different subtypes of an affective illness: statistical analysis of blind assignment of case history data to clinical diagnoses. Journal of Affective Disorders, 10, 3950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.