SynthesisJournal of clinical psychopharmacology2018
Personalized (N-of-1) Trials for Depression: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Personalized (N-of-1) Trials for Depression: A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical psychopharmacology · 2018Pooled it
- When there is little or no research evidence: a clinical decision tool.The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association · 2025Article
- N-of-1 tests in general practice: pharmacological considerations.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Preclinical Development of Antisense Oligonucleotides to Rescue Aberrant Splicing Caused by an UltrarareCells · 2024Article
- N-of-1 Trials in Cancer Drug Development.Cancer discovery · 2023Review
- N-of-1 Trials for Pediatric Hypertension? A Promising Approach to Increasing the Precision of Antihypertensive Treatment.American journal of hypertension · 2023Article
- Exploring human biology with N-of-1 clinical trials.Cambridge prisms. Precision medicine · 2023Article
- Assessment of a Mobile Health iPhone App for Semiautomated Self-management of Chronic Recurrent Medical Conditions Using an N-of-1 Trial Framework: Feasibility Pilot Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Single case designs for early phase behavioral translational research in health psychology.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2021Article
- Racial and ethnic minority patient participation in N-of-1 trials: perspectives of healthcare providers and patients.Personalized medicine · 2021Article
- Experimental Designs to Optimize Treatments for Individuals: Personalized N-of-1 Trials.JAMA pediatrics · 2021Article
- Correlation of damage score in PTOA with changes in stress on cartilage in an ovine model.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2020Article
- Article
- Practice-Based Research in Complementary Medicine: Could N-of-1 Trials Become the New Gold Standard?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Five Priority Areas for Improving Medications Development for Alcohol Use Disorder and Promoting Their Routine Use in Clinical Practice.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Review
- Single-Subject Research in Psychiatry: Facts and Fictions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- Clinical Usefulness of Bright White Light Therapy for Depressive Symptoms in Cancer Survivors: Results from a Series of Personalized (N-of-1) Trials.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
PURPOSE/
backgroundPersonalized (N-of-1) trials are single-patient, crossover-design trials that may be useful for personalizing the selection of depression treatments. We conducted a systematic review of published N-of-1 trials for depression to determine the feasibility and suitability of this methodology for personalizing depression care. METHODS/PROCEDURES: Electronic databases were searched from database inception through October 2016. Studies were selected if they enrolled depressed patients, included a within-subject crossover design, and systematically assessed depressive symptoms during the N-of-1 trial. FINDINGS/
resultsFive eligible studies reporting on 47 depressed patients (range, 1-18 patients) were identified. Two studies were conducted among adults with treatment-resistant depression, 1 study among depressed inpatients, and 2 studies among patients from special populations (geriatric nursing home, human immunodeficiency virus-associated encephalopathy). All studies evaluated the effects of pharmacologic treatments (methylphenidate, D-amphetamine, ketamine, and sulpiride). Three studies compared an off-label treatment with placebo, 1 study compared 2 off-label treatments, and 1 study compared escalating doses of an off-label treatment with placebo. All 4 studies with more than 1 participant demonstrated heterogeneous treatment effects. All studies produced data that could personalize treatment selection for individual patients. No studies reported on recruitment challenges, compliance with self-tracking, or satisfaction with participation. IMPLICATIONS/
conclusionsThe feasibility of N-of-1 trials for depression was demonstrated for a limited number of second-line pharmacologic treatments in treatment-resistant patients or in patients with comorbidities that would have excluded them from conventional randomized controlled trials. Additional research is needed to determine whether N-of-1 trials are suitable for improving the selection of depression treatments in clinical practice.
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.