Dolezsar CM, McGrath JJ, Herzig AJM, Miller SB Perceived racial discrimination and hypertension: a comprehensive systematic review. Health Psychol. 2014 Jan;33(1):20-34. doi: 10.1037/a0033718. Review.
Friese M, Messner C, Schaffner Y Mindfulness meditation counteracts self-control depletion. Conscious Cogn. 2012 Jun;21(2):1016-22. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2012.01.008. Epub 2012 Feb 5.
Fryar CD, Hirsch R, Eberhardt MS, Yoon SS, Wright JD Hypertension, high serum total cholesterol, and diabetes: racial and ethnic prevalence differences in U.S. adults, 1999-2006. NCHS Data Brief. 2010 Apr;(36):1-8.
Hamilton JP, Furman DJ, Chang C, Thomason ME, Dennis E, Gotlib IH Default-mode and task-positive network activity in major depressive disorder: implications for adaptive and maladaptive rumination. Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Aug 15;70(4):327-33. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.02.003. Epub 2011 Apr 3.
McEwen BS, Gianaros PJ Central role of the brain in stress and adaptation: links to socioeconomic status, health, and disease. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010 Feb;1186:190-222. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05331.x. Review.
Pickett S, Allen W, Franklin M, Peters RM Illness beliefs in African Americans with hypertension. West J Nurs Res. 2014 Feb;36(2):152-70. doi: 10.1177/0193945913491837. Epub 2013 Jun 13.
Richardson SI, Freedman BI, Ellison DH, Rodriguez CJ Salt sensitivity: a review with a focus on non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics. J Am Soc Hypertens. 2013 Mar-Apr;7(2):170-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jash.2013.01.003. Epub 2013 Feb 19. 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.
