Qualitative designs

Section/# Antidepressants and Suicide For purposes of choosing a journal article that was emblematic of a quantitative research method, this author has settled upon one which sought to answer key questions relating to antidepressants and suicide entitled, “ Suicide and Antidepressants What Current Evidence Indicates”. Whereas many questions can be answered by differing manners of inquiry, certain medical research questions must utilize quantitative information as a way to inform the reader/researcher as to the broad perspective, key trends, and verifiable extant information that exists regarding a given topic. As a way of seeking to provide an example of just such a piece, this brief analysis will consider the given article, analyze it for its utilization of quantitative techniques, and seek to detail the type and manner of the content which was portrayed therein.
The research question itself clearly has to do with the level of linkages that may be illustrated between the use of antidepression medication and an increased likelihood of suicide; something that has gained widespread media attention in the past several years. With reference to the way that the research itself was actually set up and carried out, the authors of the piece sought to set up a series of test which sought to measure the epidemiological affect that antidepressants had on the patient; up to and including what the researchers deemed as “ suicidabiliy”. Controls and test groups were established, antidepressant medication administered and trials concentric upon interviews and close monitoring in the form of diary and journal approaches to the frames of mind that the patients expressed during the period were employed. In terms of what was hypothesized, the researchers believed that there would be a small, perhaps unrecognizable increase, of suicidal thoughts within the adult patients and a larger, but still statistically small increase in suicidal thoughts within the adolescent test subjects.
The study ran a series of 26 different trials of no less than 15 individuals participating in each trial. For further purposes of the study, adults were identified as over the age of 18 with children being represented from the age of 9-18. As the researchers expected, the rise in suicidal thoughts and motivations within the patients that fell into the category of “ adult” were no different than that of the control group. In other words, no noticeable rise in suicidal thoughts or intentions was determined from those patients that were over the age of 18 that participated within the study. However, the researchers found that the level of suicidal thoughts and overall “ suicidability” that was exhibited within the group which could be considered children was higher than expected. Although statistically small, the results point and reinforced the fact that the overall risk to children taking antidepressants is higher than previously thought and a very real and measurable externality of pharmacology.
The given study was necessary to be performed in a quantitative way as any other form of analysis or measurement would not have yielded the same results with respect to what degree and extent the patients analyzed exhibited suicidability. Although both quantitative and qualitative research both have their place within the field of medicine and scholastic research, the use of quantities and statistics to gain a level of inference on the way that certain factors affect other factors is a necessity of modern medical research and required in many different instances.
Reference
Nischal, A., Tripathi, A., Nischal, A., & Trivedi, J. K. (2012). Suicide and Antidepressants: What Current Evidence Indicates. Mens Sana Monographs, 10(1), 33-44. doi: 10. 4103/0973-1229. 87287