Placebo-Controlled Trials for Major Depression

Patient-level data from 28 industry-sponsored, placebo-controlled, acute phase trials for adults with major depression using the HDRS-17 as symptom inventory were obtained for citalopram (Lundbeck, Valby, Denmark), paroxetine (GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, UK) and sertraline (Pfizer, New York, NY, USA). In two of the paroxetine studies and one sertraline study, fluoxetine was used as active control; while these patients were also included, those treated with non-SSRI comparators were not. To corroborate results obtained using data from the SSRI trials, we also analysed patient-level data from 13 trials comparing duloxetine to placebo (Lilly, Indianapolis, IN, USA). SSRI comparators (escitalopram, fluoxetine and paroxetine) were excluded. Both these data sets have been previously described in greater detail [7 , 8 (link)].