William T. Carpenter Jr: 35 years of clinical trials.

William T. Carpenter Jr has had a major impact on the design and conduct of clinical trials in schizophrenia. His contributions range from the decisive evaluation of the efficacy of hemodialysis to the development of novel approaches to evaluate new treatments for cognitive impairments and negative symptoms. He has developed innovative dosage reduction strategies. He has led efforts to focus drug development on those illness components that are not responsive to antipsychotic treatment. He has emphasized throughout his career the use of translational science to provide the conceptual framework for clinical trial interventions. This article reviews highlights of his many contributions, with an emphasis on 3 areas: (1) dosage reduction studies; (2) the use of the domains of psychopathology to identify drug development targets; and (3) the use of translational science to guide new drug development.