ReviewCurrent psychiatry reports2013
Antidepressant combinations: cutting edge psychopharmacology or passing fad?
Review in Current psychiatry reports, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Combining Antidepressants in Acute Treatment of Depression: A Meta-Analysis of 38 Studies Including 4511 Patients.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2016Pooled it
- Exploring New Frontiers in Pharmacological Treatment of Depression: A Review on Recent Advances.Current medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Treatment Patterns During Major Depressive Episodes Among Patients with Major Depressive Disorder: A Retrospective Database Analysis.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2022Article
- The Developmental and Translational Study on Biomarkers and Clinical Characteristics-based Diagnostic and Therapeutic Identification of Major Depressive Disorder: Study Protocol for a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial in China.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2020Article
- Trazodone Addition to Paroxetine and Mirtazapine in a Patient with Treatment-Resistant Depression: The Pros and Cons of Combining Three Antidepressants.Case reports in medicine · 2016Article
- Safety and tolerability of edivoxetine as adjunctive treatment to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants for patients with major depressive disorder.Drugs in context · 2015Article
- When is antidepressant polypharmacy appropriate in the treatment of depression?Shanghai archives of psychiatry · 2014Article
- The impact of psychopharmacology on contemporary psychiatry.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article reviews the rationale for and history of combining antidepressants, as well as the current state of the evidence, in the treatment of major depression. Although it has long been suggested that some individuals may benefit from regimens that combine two dissimilar antidepressants, enthusiasm for this practice has waxed and waned and there was never a strong empirical foundation to support this practice. The tangibly better safety profiles of the newer generation antidepressants, both singly and in combination, have permitted greater use of such combinations in contemporary practice than ever before. Combinations that pair a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) with a dissimilar antidepressant, such as bupropion or mirtazapine, are now widely used for patients who have not responded to trials of first- or second-line antidepressant monotherapies and have been tested as a potential way of speeding the benefits of treatment. However, there still is no strong evidence that even the most widely used combinations have particular merit and clinicians should be mindful that alternatives exist with more established efficacy. Moreover, aside from selected cases of drug-drug interactions, it may take full therapeutic doses of both drugs across a typically adequate duration of exposure to achieve the desired effects of combined treatment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
24052267What 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.