SynthesisJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2011
Deconstructing pediatric depression trials: an analysis of the effects of expectancy and therapeutic contact.
Synthesis in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Evidence-based treatments for youths with severely dysregulated mood: a qualitative systematic review of trials for SMD and DMDD.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2017Pooled it
- Placebo eff ects in psychiatry: mediators and moderators.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2015Pooled it
- Clinic visits in late-life depression trials: effects on signal detection and therapeutic outcome.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2014Pooled it
- Placebo response in antipsychotic clinical trials: a meta-analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2014Pooled it
- Less is more in antidepressant clinical trials: a meta-analysis of the effect of visit frequency on treatment response and dropout.The Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2013Pooled it
- Does differential drop-out explain the influence of study design on antidepressant response? A meta-analysis.Journal of affective disorders · 2012Pooled it
- A Machine Learning Approach to Identifying Placebo Responders in Late-Life Depression Trials.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Effect of the mGluR5-NAM Basimglurant on Behavior in Adolescents and Adults with Fragile X Syndrome in a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial: FragXis Phase 2 Results.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- A randomized, prospective pilot study of patient expectancy and antidepressant outcome.Psychological medicine · 2013Trial
- SSRIs: exploring controversies, conundrums, and contentions-epiphenomenon or empirical ingenuity? A comparative panorama for untangling enigma in children and youths.CNS spectrums · 2025Review
- Responding to Suicide in School Communities: An Examination of Postvention Guidance from Expert Recommendations and Empirical Studies.Current psychiatry reports · 2023Review
- Effects of Expectancy on Cognitive Performance, Mood, and Psychophysiology in Healthy Adolescents and Their Parents in an Experimental Study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
- Placebo Responses and Placebo Effects in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- "Placebo by Proxy" and "Nocebo by Proxy" in Children: A Review of Parents' Role in Treatment Outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- Short- and Long-Term Antidepressant Clinical Trials for Major Depressive Disorder in Youth: Findings and Concerns.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
- Placebo Effects in Psychotherapy: A Framework.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
- Moderators and predictors of response to behavior therapy for tics in Tourette syndrome.Neurology · 2017Article
- Placebo Response in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: Implications for Clinical Trial Design and Interpretation.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2016Article
- Practising evidence-based medicine in an era of high placebo response: number needed to treat reconsidered.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study investigated how study type, mean patient age, and amount of contact with research staff affected response rates to medication and placebo in acute antidepressant trials for pediatric depression.
methodData were extracted from nine open, four active comparator, and 18 placebo-controlled studies of antidepressants for children and adolescents with depressive disorders. A multilevel meta-analysis examined how study characteristics affected response rates to antidepressants and placebo.
resultsThe primary finding was a main effect of study type across patient age and contact amount, such that the odds of medication response were greater in open versus placebo-controlled studies (odds ratio 1.87, 95% confidence interval 1.17-2.99, p = .012) and comparator studies (odds ratio 2.01, 95% confidence interval 1.16-3.48, p = .015) but were not significantly different between comparator and placebo-controlled studies. No significant main effects of patient age or amount of contact with research staff were found for analyses of response rates to medication and placebo. Response to placebo in placebo-controlled trials did significantly increase with the amount of therapeutic contact in older patients (age by contact; odds ratio 1.08, 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.15, p = .038).
conclusionsAlthough patient expectancy strongly influences response rates to medication and placebo in depressed adults, it appears to be less important in the treatment of children and adolescents with depression. Attempts to limit placebo response and improve the efficiency of antidepressant trials for pediatric depression should focus on other causes of placebo response apart from expectancy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.