Preparation of Technical Reviews of treatments of psychiatric disorders

I) A CINP Task Force Report on the effectiveness and side effects of antidepressant medications Based on a Review of Evidence

In 2005, the Collegium Internationale Psychopharmacologicum (CINP) entrusted the technical conduct of a project onAnti-Depressant Medications in the Treatment of Depressive Disorders to the Association. The aim of this project was to review evidence and experience concerning the use of antidepressant medications. The review was substantive and covered materials published over the 10 years preceding the publication in several languages. The review has been prepared by a Task Force established for the purpose and assisted by a large group of advisers.

In order to ensure that evidence as well as experience are represented in the review the Task Force organized several regional meetings in 2006 in different parts of the world, i.e. in St.Petersburg (5-6 June), Münich (16-17 June), Shanghai (26-27 June), Caracas (3-4 July) and Paris (19-20 September).Each of these meetings brought together experts from the country in which the meeting took place as well as participants from other countries in the region. The country experts included representatives of several scientific disciplines (e.g. psychiatry, pharmacology, neurology, internal medicine, public health), representatives of the government, of family and patient organizations and, on occasion, of industry and the media. The experts who took part in the meetings have then organized national meetings along the lines of the regional meetings in their own countries

The reports of national meetings were published in local scientific journals. The Technical Review was published as Baghai T.C, Baldwin D.S, Barrett B, Baumann P, Ghalib K, Goodwin G, Grunze H, Knapp M, Leonard B.E, Markowitz J. C, Padberg F, Pinder R, Sartorius N. (2007). Antidepressant medications andother treatments of depressive disorders: a CINP Task Force report based on a review of evidence.Supplement to The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Volume 10 Supplement 1, Dec 2007, pp S1-S207.

The review served as the background to a consensus statement endorsed by the Executive Committee of theCINP in July 2006. The review has been translated and published in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The costs of the meetings related to the preparation of the Review and administrative expenses have been covered by the CINP and by participating institutions. The members of the Task Force, advisers to the project, the editors of thereport and others who contributed to it received no honoraria nor other financial compensation for their work.

II) Preparation of a review of the usefulness and use of the second-generation antipsychotic medications.

AIMHP has also taken the lead role in the production of a review of publications describing antipsychoticmedications. The review carried out in collaboration with experts from different countries was published in Current Opinion in Psychiatry by

Sartorius N, Fleischhacker WW, Gjerris A, Kern U, Knapp M, Leonard BE, Lieberman JA, López-Ibor JJ, van Raay B, Twomey E. (2002) The Usefulness and Use of Second Generation AntipsychoticMedications. Current Opinion in Psychiatry. 15, Suppl. 1:1-51.