We retrieved all observational studies and clinical trials related to patients with mood disorders or to their caregivers. In the case of clinical trials, we included all interventions, such as drugs, lifestyle modification, psycho-educational treatments, and behavioral treatments. We extracted data for studies registered in the CTRI database between June 15, 2009 and December 31, 2019. We used the three advanced search options at the CTRI website: ‘scientific title of the study,’ ‘health condition/problem studied,’ and ‘intervention and comparator agent’ to identify relevant observational studies and interventional clinical trials.
For the first two options, we searched the database using disorder keywords such as “depression”, “depressive disorder”, “major depressive disorder”, “treatment-resistant depression”, “mania”, “bipolar disorder”, and “bipolar depression”, entered individually. For the third option, we searched using names of psychotropic drugs and other treatments, such as “olanzapine”, “risperidone”, “cognitive behaviour therapy”, “electroconvulsive therapy”, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and deep brain stimulation, again entered individually. Two authors (NV, RJ) independently searched the CTRI database using these strategies, after which a final list of studies satisfying the eligibility criteria was made by removing duplicates. We excluded studies involving interventions related to Ayurveda, Unani, and other alternative systems of medicine because the results of such studies tend to be published in journals and other destinations that might not have been accessible to us in our literature search. We also excluded studies that were not conducted primarily in patients with the disorders listed above.
For the first two options, we searched the database using disorder keywords such as “depression”, “depressive disorder”, “major depressive disorder”, “treatment-resistant depression”, “mania”, “bipolar disorder”, and “bipolar depression”, entered individually. For the third option, we searched using names of psychotropic drugs and other treatments, such as “olanzapine”, “risperidone”, “cognitive behaviour therapy”, “electroconvulsive therapy”, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and deep brain stimulation, again entered individually. Two authors (NV, RJ) independently searched the CTRI database using these strategies, after which a final list of studies satisfying the eligibility criteria was made by removing duplicates. We excluded studies involving interventions related to Ayurveda, Unani, and other alternative systems of medicine because the results of such studies tend to be published in journals and other destinations that might not have been accessible to us in our literature search. We also excluded studies that were not conducted primarily in patients with the disorders listed above.
