Initial depression severity and response to antidepressants v. placebo: patient-level data analysis from 34 randomised controlled trials

Jonathan Rabinowitz, Nomi Werbeloff, Francine S. Mandel, François Menard, Lauren Marangell, Shitij Kapur

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

Several often-cited meta-analyses have reported that the efficacy of antidepressant medications depends on the severity of depression. They found that drug-placebo differences increased as a function of initial severity, which was attributed to decreased responsiveness to placebo among patients with severe depression rather than to increased responsiveness to medication. We retested this using patient-level data and also undertaking a meta-analysis of trial-level data from 34 randomised placebo controlled trials (n = 10 737) from the NEWMEDS registry. Although our trial-level data support prevous findings, patient-level data did not show any significant effect of initial depression severity on drug v. placebo difference.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)427-428
Number of pages2
JournalBritish Journal of Psychiatry
Volume209
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016.

Funding

FundersFunder number
Francine S. Mandel, François Menard, USA; Shitij Kapur, PhD, PhD, School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, PhD, Pfizer Development Operations, Lundbec Research Department, Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College LondonMRC_G0701748
Medical Research CouncilG0701748

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