Research without external funding in North American psychiatry.

OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the extent and characteristics of published psychiatric research from U.S. and Canadian medical schools that was carried out without external funding.

METHOD: They reviewed reports of unfunded research in 14 psychiatric journals, tabulating methodological factors and topics of study. They surveyed first authors about their academic duties and resources used in the studies.

RESULTS: Unfunded studies represented 26% of research reports, were usually prospective, most commonly dealt with phenomenology/epidemiology or psychopharmacology, used low levels of technology, and were accomplished on a modest budget of time and money.

CONCLUSIONS: Unfunded studies make a substantial and economically efficient contribution to psychiatric research. Future investigations should detail the institutional conditions necessary to sustain this type of research productivity.