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. 2006 Oct 31;3(10):e470. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030470

Profiling of CSF: Small Subgroups

Dave Hambridge
PMCID: PMC1626571  PMID: 17076580

This very encouraging article [1] is based on relatively small subgroups of patients. That in itself does not invalidate the conclusions, providing that the subjects in each group have the same illness.

I recently reported that many detained psychiatric inpatients had not been fully investigated to exclude organic causes of their seeming first episode of schizophrenic-like psychosis [2].

These authors state that their patients had DSM-IV–diagnosed schizophrenia, which excludes organic causation. What investigations did they do to ensure that their clinical sample had no organic precipitants?

Footnotes

Dave Hambridge (hambidge207@btinternet.com) Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Funding: The author received no specific funding for this article.

Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

References

  1. Holmes E, Tsang TM, Huang JTJ, Leweke FM, Koethe D, et al. Metabolic profiling of CSF: Evidence that early intervention may impact on disease progression and outcome in schizophrenia. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030327. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030327. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Hambidge D. Secondary schizophrenia. PLoS Med. 2005;2:e279. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020279. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020279. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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