Research

Interests

Dr. Spielmans' interests include the following:

• Psychotherapy outcomes
• Methods of assessing treatment outcomes
• Interface of science and marketing regarding psychotropic medications
• Accuracy of pharmaceutical advertisements
• Principles of evidence-based treatment in mental health settings
• Health psychology interventions
• Meta-analysis

Publications and Curriculum Vita

Please click the corresponding link to see Dr. Spielmans' CV in .pdf format. By accessing his CV, you can access abstracts, and in some cases, full text of his publications by scrolling to the publication section of the CV document. Should you wish to receive the full text of any article listed on the CV, just email Dr. Spielmans.

Selected Research Findings

Dr. Spielmans' research has found the following:

• Eli Lilly's antipsychotic drug olanzapine (Zyprexa) was marketed off-label for subsyndromal bipolar disorder and dementia. Primary care physicians were encouraged to prescribe olanzapine to treat relatively mild symptoms rather than for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia per se. Internal documents from Lilly were utilized as the basis for this paper, which was published in Social Science & Medicine.
• Evidence from several sources, including internal documents from various pharmaceutical firms, suggests that the foundation of "evidence-based medicine" has been undermined by drug marketers. Suppression of negative data, ghostwriting, and other tactics are commonly used to paint an unrealistically positive picture of scientific research findings regarding medications. Details are presented in a paper in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry.
• There is little evidence from comparaive trials that specific ingredients of cognitive and behavioral interventions are responsible for improvements in bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED). While CBT had a small advantage over other bona fide therapies, the advantage was a) small, b) nonexistent at followup, and c) nonexistent on secondary measures (depression, anxiety, etc.). Further, the trials comparing CBT to bona fide non-CBT had limited internal validity due to the presence of confounding variables. This meta-analysis was published in Clinical Psychology Review.
• When used as an adjunct (add-on) treatment to antidepressant medication among depressed patients who have not responded to an initial course of antidepressant treatment, atypical antipsychotic drugs provide a small benefit in reducing clinician-rated depressive symptoms. However, these drugs provide little to no benefit in terms of quality of life, functioning, and self-rated depressive symptoms. Adverse events are common. Study design and data reporting both likely led to an inflation of apparent efficacy and reduction in apparent adverse events. This paper was published in PLoS Medicine.
• As of May 2005, there was no solid evidence from comparative trials that specific ingredients of cognitive or behavioral treatments were responsible for improvements in childhood depression and anxiety. Rather, the comparative literature suggests that factors common across various psychotherapies may be responsible for therapeutic change. This meta-analysis was published in Clinical Psychology Review.
• Despite the drug's "Depression Hurts" marketing mantra, clinical trial data suggest that, among depressed patients, duloxetine (Cymbalta) does not actually relieve pain to a significantly greater extent than placebo. This meta-analysis was published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
• Medical journal advertisements for psychiatric medications make claims that are often unsupported by their own cited sources. Readers of such ads should view them with caution. This study was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
• Distant intercessory prayer appears to have, on average, no beneficial health impact upon people who are being prayed for. This meta-analysis was published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, then updated and published along with thoughts for a research agenda on intercessory prayer in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Student Researchers

Dr. Spielmans has worked with students on many of his projects, some of which have been presented at local undergraduate and national conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals, including Clinical Psychology Review, PLoS Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychotherapy Research and the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. If you are a student who may want to work with Dr. Spielmans on a project, contact him via email. He prefers to work with students who have performed well in both a statistics course and a research methods course, but is willing to speak with anyone who is interested in conducting research.

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Disclaimer: The content and opinions represented in this site are not necessarily those of Metropolitan State University. The site author, Dr. Glen Spielmans, is solely responsible for the site's content.