ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2018
Statistically Significant Antidepressant-Placebo Differences on Subjective Symptom-Rating Scales Do Not Prove That the Drugs Work: Effect Size and Method Bias Matter!
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 6 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
39 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effect of mindfulness meditation on depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Topiramate and other kainate receptor antagonists for depression: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2022Pooled it
- Classic serotonergic psychedelics for mood and depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis of mood disorder patients and healthy participants.Psychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Guidelines for the pharmacological acute treatment of major depression: conflicts with current evidence as demonstrated with the German S3-guidelines.BMC psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Rosiglitazone Adjunct to Sertraline for Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.Depression and anxiety · 2026Trial
- L-Theanine adjunct to risperidone in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia inpatients: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.Psychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Public thresholds for antidepressant effectiveness and adverse drug reaction rates: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Measuring and appraising placebo effects in clinical trials: contemporary challenges and approaches in psychiatry.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2026Review
- Do sex and gender matter in the pharmacological treatment of depression?Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Effectiveness of Psychological Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Review
- [Ethics in the use of psychedelics: The definition of illicit drugs from the perspective of critical bioethics].Salud colectiva · 2024Article
- Personal and perceived stigma in relation to diverse domains of quality of life among patients with major depressive disorder having residual symptoms: a hospital-based cross-sectional study in Thailand.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Estimating the smallest worthwhile difference of antidepressants: a cross-sectional survey.BMJ mental health · 2024Article
- Biological principles for music and mental health.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- No benefit of antidepressants in inpatient treatment of depression. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental field study.Psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Significant Differences and Experimental Designs Do Not Necessarily Imply Clinical Relevance: Effect Sizes and Causality Claims in Antidepressant Treatments.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Antidepressants: A content analysis of healthcare providers' tweets.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.
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.