Boggio PS, Asthana MK, Costa TL, Valasek CA, Osório AA Promoting social plasticity in developmental disorders with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. Front Neurosci. 2015 Sep 1;9:294. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00294. eCollection 2015. Review.
Couture SM, Penn DL, Roberts DL The functional significance of social cognition in schizophrenia: a review. Schizophr Bull. 2006 Oct;32 Suppl 1:S44-63. Epub 2006 Aug 17. Review.
Demirtas-Tatlidede A, Vahabzadeh-Hagh AM, Pascual-Leone A Can noninvasive brain stimulation enhance cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders? Neuropharmacology. 2013 Jan;64:566-78. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2012.06.020. Epub 2012 Jun 28. Review.
Dillon MR, Kannan H, Dean JT, Spelke ES, Duflo E Cognitive science in the field: A preschool intervention durably enhances intuitive but not formal mathematics. Science. 2017 Jul 7;357(6346):47-55. doi: 10.1126/science.aal4724.
Gao X, Maurer D Influence of intensity on children's sensitivity to happy, sad, and fearful facial expressions. J Exp Child Psychol. 2009 Apr;102(4):503-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.11.002. Epub 2009 Jan 4.
Jamil A, Batsikadze G, Kuo HI, Labruna L, Hasan A, Paulus W, Nitsche MA Systematic evaluation of the impact of stimulation intensity on neuroplastic after-effects induced by transcranial direct current stimulation. J Physiol. 2017 Feb 15;595(4):1273-1288. doi: 10.1113/JP272738. Epub 2016 Nov 8.
Kucharska-Pietura K, Mortimer A Can antipsychotics improve social cognition in patients with schizophrenia? CNS Drugs. 2013 May;27(5):335-43. doi: 10.1007/s40263-013-0047-0. Review.
Kuo MF, Paulus W, Nitsche MA Therapeutic effects of non-invasive brain stimulation with direct currents (tDCS) in neuropsychiatric diseases. Neuroimage. 2014 Jan 15;85 Pt 3:948-60. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.117. Epub 2013 Jun 4. Review.
Muszkat D, Polanczyk GV, Dias TG, Brunoni AR Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2016 Sep;26(7):590-7. doi: 10.1089/cap.2015.0172. Epub 2016 Mar 30. Review.
Interventional studies are often prospective and are specifically tailored to evaluate direct impacts of treatment or preventive measures on disease.
Observational studies are often retrospective and are used to assess potential causation in exposure-outcome relationships and therefore influence preventive methods.
Expanded access is a means by which manufacturers make investigational new drugs available, under certain circumstances, to treat a patient(s) with a serious disease or condition who cannot participate in a controlled clinical trial.
Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.
Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.
