SynthesisThe international journal of neuropsychopharmacology2023
A Synthetic External Control Study Comparing the Clinical Efficacy of Wendan Decoction and 19 Antidepressants.
Synthesis in The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Examining the Reliability of Model-Based Meta-Analysis (MBMA) Outcomes: A Simulation Study.CPT: pharmacometrics & systems pharmacology · 2026Article
- Study on Chaiyuwendan decoction's inhibition of hippocampal neuron apoptosis to alleviating depression by activating the AKT/CREB pathway.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- A new perspective on Wendan decoction: attenuation of CUMS-induced anxiety in mice by regulating gut microbiota and neuroinflammation.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Issues and Solutions in Psychiatric Clinical Trial with Case Studies.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWendan decoction (WDD) has been used as a treatment for depression in China since the Tang Dynasty. However, high-quality evidence for this is lacking. This study proposed a novel synthetic external control method to evaluate its clinical efficacy.
methodsWe searched public databases for clinical trials of WDD for major depression. The rate of change of the Hamilton Depression Scale score from baseline was used as an efficacy indicator, and a model-based meta-analysis was performed to analyze the clinical efficacy of WDD. To establish a reference standard for efficacy, the antidepressant efficacy distributions of a placebo and 19 antidepressants were virtually synthesized based on the same conditions as the clinical trial characteristics of WDD.
resultsThis study included 5 clinical trials with 177 participants. WDD showed a slow onset, with a time to reach the maximum effect of 9.71 weeks. At 8 weeks, the rate of change in the Hamilton Depression Scale score from baseline was 66.4% (95% CI = 62.3%-70.3%) in the WDD group. The pure effect value of WDD, after deducting the placebo effect, was 26.9% (95%CI = 23.0%-30.9%), which was comparable with 5 types of antidepressants and significantly higher than the others.
conclusionThe proposed external synthetic control method provides a solution to the bottleneck problem of clinical efficacy evaluation in real-world research on traditional Chinese medicine. WDD has high clinical development value for the treatment of depression, and large-scale randomized controlled trials are recommended to confirm its antidepressant effect.
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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.