ASCP Corner June 30, 2008

Are Antidepressants Effective? What's a Clinician to Think?

J. Craig Nelson, MD; Michael E. Thase, MD; Arif Khan, MD

J Clin Psychiatry 2008;69(6):1014-1015

Article Abstract

Questions about the efficacy of antidepressantdrugs in depression have beenraised as a result of 2 recent reports.Turner et al. reviewed industry-sponsoredclinical trials (randomized controlled trials;RCTs) submitted to the FDA and foundthat positive RCTs were more likely to besubsequently published than negative trials.The authors suggested that publisheddata overestimate the effectiveness of antidepressants.