Each year pharmaceutical companies invest billions of dollars in clinical trials of drugs used for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. Due to enormous progress in basic pharmaceutical research in recent years, controlled tests of new medications are flourishing and these trials have rapidly become an intense focus of practical medical research.

Aware of the complexities presented in the design, execution, and evaluation of clinical trials, Marc Hertzman and Douglas E. Feltner bring together a collection of essays that dissect the scientific, psychosocial, political,...