Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25917369›Full record

ArticleMolecular psychiatry2016

Consistent superiority of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors over placebo in reducing depressed mood in patients with major depression.

F Hieronymus, J F Emilsson, S Nilsson, E Eriksson

Registry-linked trialOpen access · hybridAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03143075 (Do Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have an Antidepressant Effect in Patients With Signs of Peripheral Inflammation?), which is not on this map. Cited by 82 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
82citing papers in PubMed, 10 pooled it
16.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT03143075 nacompletednot on this mapstarted 2017, after this paper: background citation

Do Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have an Antidepressant Effect in Patients With Signs of Peripheral Inflammation?

TypeinterventionalSponsorRegion SkaneRan2017 to 2023Enrolled95ConditionsMajor Depressive DisorderArmsEicosapentaenoic acid enriched omega-3 fatty acids, 2 g/day
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

82 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 201 citations in OpenAlex.

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  7. Item-based analysis of the effects of duloxetine in depression: a patient-level post hoc study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020
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22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

F HieronymusDepartment of Pharmacology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0930-6068
J F EmilssonDepartment of Pharmacology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
S NilssonInstitute of Mathematical Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
E ErikssonDepartment of Pharmacology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
University of Gothenburg · SEChalmers University of Technology · SE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The recent questioning of the antidepressant effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is partly based on the observation that approximately half of company-sponsored trials have failed to reveal a significant difference between active drug and placebo. Most of these have applied the Hamilton depression rating scale to assess symptom severity, the sum score for its 17 items (HDRS-17-sum) serving as effect parameter. In this study, we examined whether the negative outcomes of many SSRI trials may be partly caused by the use of this frequently questioned measure of response. We undertook patient-level post-hoc analyses of 18 industry-sponsored placebo-controlled trials regarding paroxetine, citalopram, sertraline or fluoxetine, and including in total 6669 adults with major depression, the aim being to assess what the outcome would have been if the single item depressed mood (rated 0-4) had been used as a measure of efficacy. In total, 32 drug-placebo comparisons were reassessed. While 18 out of 32 comparisons (56%) failed to separate active drug from placebo at week 6 with respect to reduction in HDRS-17-sum, only 3 out of 32 comparisons (9%) were negative when depressed mood was used as an effect parameter (P<0.001). The observation that 29 out of 32 comparisons detected an antidepressant signal from the tested SSRI suggests the effect of these drugs to be more consistent across trials than previously assumed. Further, the frequent use of the HDRS-17-sum as an effect parameter may have distorted the current view on the usefulness of SSRIs and hampered the development of novel antidepressants.

Indexed as

AdultAffectCyclohexanolsFemaleHumansMajor Depressive DisorderMaleMiddle AgedRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicReproducibility of ResultsSelective Serotonin Reuptake InhibitorsSerotonin and Noradrenaline Reuptake InhibitorsVenlafaxine HydrochlorideCyclohexanolsSelective Serotonin Reuptake InhibitorsSerotonin and Noradrenaline Reuptake InhibitorsVenlafaxine Hydrochloride

Identifiers

PMID25917369
PMCPMC4804177
OpenAlexW2018067258

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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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.