This correction reports changes in our protocol since its publication. These include changes to authorship and acknowledgements, together with improvements to study design and procedures, and correction of an internal inconsistency. The improvements relate to the exclusion criteria, assessments carried out at screening, and mode of data collection

Clare Wilkinson

David B Menkes

Dyfrig A Hughes

Emma Bedson

Gary P Slegg

Ian T Russell

Johannes Thome

Keith R Lloyd

Munir Pirmohamed

Rhiannon Whitaker

Richard Tranter

Seren Haf Roberts

SH Roberts

Stuart J Moat

BMC Psychiatry

English

PubMed

Springer - Publisher Connector

BioMed CentralBMC Psychiatry
ssOpen AcceCorrection
Correction: Folate Augmentation of Treatment – Evaluation for 
Depression (FolATED): protocol of a randomised controlled trial
Seren Haf Roberts*1, Emma Bedson1, Dyfrig A Hughes2, Keith R Lloyd3, 
David B Menkes4, Stuart J Moat5, Munir Pirmohamed6, Gary P Slegg1, 
Johannes Thome7, Richard Tranter8, Rhiannon Whitaker9, Clare Wilkinson10 
and Ian T Russell9
Address: 1North Wales Section of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Medical and Social Care Research (IMSCaR), Bangor University, Academic 
Unit, Wrexham Technology Park, Wrexham, LL13 7YP, UK, 2Centre for Economics and Policy in Health, IMSCaR, Bangor University, Dean Street, 
Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 1UT, UK, 3CHIRAL, Institute of Life Science, School Of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK, 4Waikato 
Clinical School, University of Auckland, Private Bag 3200, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand, 5Department of Medical Biochemistry and Immunology, 
University Hospital of Wales, Health Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XW, UK, 6Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Liverpool, 
Ashton Street, Liverpool, L69 3GE, UK, 7Neuroscience and Molecular Psychiatry, Institute of Life Science, School Of Medicine, Swansea University, 
Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK, 8North West Wales NHS Trust, Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PW, UK, 9North Wales Organisation for 
Randomised Trials in Health (NWORTH), Institute of Medical and Social Care Research (IMSCaR), Bangor University, Ardudwy Hall, Normal Site, 
Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PX, UK and 10Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University, Gwenfro Building, Wrexham 
Technology Park, Wrexham, LL13 7YP, UK
Email: Seren Haf Roberts* - seren.roberts@new-tr.wales.nhs.uk; Emma Bedson - e.bedson@bangor.ac.uk; 
Dyfrig A Hughes - d.a.hughes@bangor.ac.uk; Keith R Lloyd - k.r.lloyd@swansea.ac.uk; David B Menkes - menkesD@waikatodhb.govt.nz; 
Stuart J Moat - moatSJ@cardiff.ac.uk; Munir Pirmohamed - munirP@liv.ac.uk; Gary P Slegg - gary.slegg@new-tr.wales.nhs.uk; 
Johannes Thome - j.thome@swansea.ac.uk; Richard Tranter - richard.tranter@nww-tr.wales.nhs.uk; 
Rhiannon Whitaker - r.whitaker@bangor.ac.uk; Clare Wilkinson - wilkinsonC@cardiff.ac.uk; Ian T Russell - ian.russell@bangor.ac.uk
* Corresponding author    
Abstract
This correction reports changes in our protocol since its publication. These include changes to
authorship and acknowledgements, together with improvements to study design and procedures,
and correction of an internal inconsistency. The improvements relate to the exclusion criteria,
assessments carried out at screening, and mode of data collection.
Correction
Publication of our protocol [1] revealed that David
Menkes and Johannes Thome, whose contribution was
originally cited under the Acknowledgements section, had
both met the authorship criteria for this journal. So the
full list of authors is revised as follows:
Seren Haf Roberts, Emma Bedson, Dyfrig A Hughes, Keith
R Lloyd, David B Menkes, Stuart J Moat, Munir Pirmo-
hamed, Gary P Slegg, Johannes Thome, Richard Tranter,
Rhiannon Whitaker, Clare Wilkinson, Ian T Russell
The authors' contributions should read:
"ITR contributed methodological and health services
research expertise and was responsible for the first study
protocol in collaboration with GS. SHR was responsible
for the second and subsequent versions of the protocol, as
Published: 7 April 2009
BMC Psychiatry 2009, 9:14 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-14
Received: 14 January 2009
Accepted: 7 April 2009
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/9/14
© 2009 Roberts et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 2
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well as coordinating and contributing to the development
of the study design. All other named authors contributed
to the study design and protocol in complementary ways:
KL, DM, JT, and RT contributed clinical and health serv-
ices research expertise; EB and GS contributed trial man-
agement expertise; DH contributed the health economics
component; MP contributed the genetics component; SM
contributed expertise in the biochemistry of folate and
homocysteine; RW contributed methodological and sta-
tistical expertise; and CW contributed primary care
research expertise. All authors have seen and agreed this
protocol manuscript."
The acknowledgments should read:
"The development of this protocol has benefited from
support from: (1) three participating NHS Trusts (North
East Wales, North West Wales and Swansea), in particular
their Research and Development Departments, haematol-
ogy laboratories and pharmacies; (2) collaborating GPs;
(3) Dr Alan Woodall, who helped to develop the original
hypothesis; (4) Dr Lindy Miller.
This project is funded by the NHS R&D Programme
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme
(project number 04/35/08). The views and opinions
expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect those of the Department of Health.
Since publication we have also enhanced the study proto-
col in several ways:
1) We have updated the exclusion criteria by replacing
'taking lithium' by bipolar disorder. This ensures that only
patients with unipolar depression enter the trial, whether
taking lithium or not. We have found no evidence to sug-
gest a risk of adverse interactions between lithium and
folate or other contraindications. Nevertheless this exclu-
sion criterion was impeding recruitment into the trial,
particularly from secondary care. Because the summary of
product characteristics states that "folate supplements
enhance the efficacy of lithium therapy", we shall account
for this through analysis of covariance. We have amended
the Statistics section to reflect this. The second sentence of
the third paragraph now reads "We shall compare folic
acid and placebo using analysis of covariance to take
account of baseline differences, notably in folate levels
and the prescription of lithium."
2) We have removed from the screening appointment the
majority of assessments including the MADRS, CGI,
EQ5D, SF12, and UKU. Patients still complete the BDI,
which is the primary outcome measure. This has helped to
reduce the burden on the patient and has increased the
number of patients who can be screened by psychiatrists.
The full battery of assessments at randomisation, which
provides the true baseline, continues as before. To reflect
this change we have removed the first sentence from the
section on baseline measures and blood samples. Table 1
also incorporates this change.
3) Though we had intended the FolATED trial to be paper-
less, we have replaced the electronic trial database by a rig-
orous paper-based data collection system. We have
therefore amended the section on data handling and
record keeping, and removed the following sentences: "It
is our intention however, to attempt to make this trial as
paperless as possible; thus most of the data will be
recorded electronically. Electronic data will be stored on a
central computer at each centre. Field investigators will
use laptops that will be cleared of data after every visit
once uploaded to the central database. The database will
be designed to ensure only valid data can be entered."
4) There was an inconsistency between timing of the ques-
tionnaire administrations quoted in the health resource
utilisation section and Table 1 of the protocol. The ques-
tionnaires are administered at second baseline, 12 weeks
and 6 months rather than baseline, 4 week and 12 weeks.
The second sentence of the section on healthcare resource
utilisation now reads "These will be collected by the
research professional at the second baseline, week 12 and
month 6."
References
1. Roberts SH, Bedson E, Hughes D, Lloyd K, Moat S, Pirmohamed M,
Slegg G, Tranter R, Wilkinson C, Russell I: Folate Augmentation
of Treatment – Evaluation for Depression (FolATED): pro-
tocol of a randomised controlled trial.  BMC Psychiatry 2007,
7:65.
Pre-publication history
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed
here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/9/14/pre
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Erratum to: Folate Augmentation of Treatment – Evaluation for Depression (FolATED): protocol of a randomised controlled trial

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