January 2006
1. What is the STAR D study?
A. The Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR D) Study, funded by the NIH National Institute of Mental Health, is a nationwide public health clinical trial. The purpose of the trial is to determine the effectiveness of different treatments for people with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) who have not responded to initial treatment with an antidepressant. This is the largest and longest study ever done to evaluate depression treatment. Over a seven-year period, the study enrolled more than 4,000 outpatients, aged 18-75 years. The participants were people who came to their doctors for care and who had other psychiatric and medical conditions like those regularly seen in typical clinical practices (see Ref 1). Patients from both mental health (specialty care) and non-mental health (primary medical care) practices in diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic populations were enrolled in the study.
Starting an independent business from scratch is no small featâso why would anyone give up a concept built from their blood, sweat and tears to convert to a franchise? Jon and Kari Murdock asked themselves that same question when considering whether or not to convert their Murdock Plumbing business in the valley of Kalispell, Montana, to a Mr. Rooter Plumbing, a Neighborly company. Neighborly has 28 service-based franchise brands with more than 4,500 franchises in nine countries.
âWe put so much time and energy into building our business and helping to make our name known in the valley as being a reliable, honest, quality plumbing business. We did not want to lose that,â Kari said. âJon also had a lot of pride in the fact that it was our name on the door and that meant a lot to him. We talked to the Mr. Rooter Plumbing representative quite a bit about how much say we would still have in the day-to-day operations of our business.âÂ