Description
Book SynopsisThis guide to statistics for busy mental health professionals describes and applies concepts without mathematics, and includes examples from standard clinical practice. Fully revised and updated in a new edition and covering observational bias, randomization, clinical trials, the overuse of p-values, understanding effect sizes, meta-analysis.
Table of Contents1. Why data never speak for themselves; 2. Why you cannot believe your eyes; 3. Levels of evidence; 4. Bias; 5. Randomization; 6. Clinical trials: improving on clinical experience; 7. The p-value: uses and misuses; 8. Forget p-values: the importance of effect sizes; 9. Understanding placebo; 10. Understanding confidence intervals; 11. Observational studies; 12. The alchemy of meta-analysis; 13. Bayesian statistics: why your opinion counts; 14. Causation; 15. A philosophy of statistics; 16. Evidence-based medicine: defense and criticism; 17. Social and economic factors: peer review, funding, and the conventional wisdom; 18. The new canon of psychopharmacology (STAR*D, STEP-BD, CATIE): how clinical trials are misinterpreted; 19. False positive maintenance clinical trials in psychiatry; 20. How to analyze a study; Appendix. Understanding regression; Index.
