Trial reportJournal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology2018
Desvenlafaxine Versus Placebo in the Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.
Trial report in Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 5 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Association of Placebo Response with Effect Size in Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trials of Antidepressants in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical drug investigation · 2025Pooled it
- Comparative efficacy of antidepressant medication for adolescent depression: a network meta-analysis and systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Factors Related to Placebo Response in Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trials of Antidepressants in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-regression Analysis.Clinical drug investigation · 2023Pooled it
- New generation antidepressants for depression in children and adolescents: a network meta-analysis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Desvenlafaxine Versus Placebo in a Fluoxetine-Referenced Study of Children and Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Vortioxetine for Major Depressive Disorder in Children: 12-Week Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study.JAACAP open · 2025Article
- Review: Child Psychiatry in the Era of Genomics: The Promise of Translational Genetics Research for the Clinic.JAACAP open · 2025Review
- A rare case of antidepressant discontinuation syndrome triggered by domperidone: Clinical insights and literature review.SAGE open medical case reports · 2025Article
- Psychopharmacological Approaches to a Case of Treatment Resistant Adolescent Depression.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2022Article
- Efficacy and tolerability of antidepressant drugs in treatment of depression in children and adolescents: a network meta-analysis.Zhejiang da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Zhejiang University. Medical sciences · 2022Article
- Safety of 80 antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-attention-deficit/hyperactivity medications and mood stabilizers in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders: a large scale systematic meta-review of 78 adverse effects.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2020Article
- Pharmacogenomics: an Update for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.Current psychiatry reports · 2020Review
- Duty to Warn: Antidepressant Black Box Suicidality Warning Is Empirically Justified.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- New Somatic Treatments for Child and Adolescent Depression.Current treatment options in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Short- and Long-Term Antidepressant Clinical Trials for Major Depressive Disorder in Youth: Findings and Concerns.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the short-term efficacy and safety of desvenlafaxine versus placebo in the treatment of children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD).
methodsOutpatient children (7-11 years) and adolescents (12-17 years) who met DSM-IV-TR criteria for MDD and had screening and baseline Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) total scores >40 were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of treatment with placebo, low exposure desvenlafaxine (20, 30, or 35 mg/day based on baseline weight), or higher exposure desvenlafaxine (25, 35, or 50 mg/day based on baseline weight). The primary efficacy endpoint was change from baseline in CDRS-R total score at week 8, analyzed using a mixed-effects model for repeated measures. Secondary efficacy assessments included Clinical Global Impressions-Severity and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scales. Safety assessments included adverse events and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale.
resultsThe safety population included 363 patients (children, n = 109; adolescents, n = 254). No statistical separation from placebo was observed for either desvenlafaxine group for CDRS-R total score or for any secondary efficacy endpoint. At week 8, adjusted mean (standard error) changes from baseline in CDRS-R total score for the desvenlafaxine low exposure, desvenlafaxine high exposure, and placebo groups were -23.7 (1.1), -24.4 (1.1), and -22.9 (1.1), respectively. The incidence of adverse events was similar among groups.
conclusionLow and high exposure desvenlafaxine groups did not demonstrate efficacy for the treatment of MDD in children and adolescents in this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Desvenlafaxine (20-50 mg/day) was generally safe and well tolerated with no new safety signals identified in pediatric patients with MDD in this study.
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