ANTIDEPRESSANT TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION - A METAANALYSIS

Objective: To carry out a metaanalysis of antidepressant studies to ca lculate the effect sizes for antidepressant effect in depressive disor der. Method: A metaanalysis of all antidepressant studies that include d an active comparison drug as well as placebo was used to calculate t he effect size. Articles were selected from a MEDLINE search for the p eriod January 1966 to June 1995. Forty-nine studies were included in t he metaanalysis. Results: The effect sizes for antidepressant treatmen t are moderately larger than for placebo. A larger effect size was obs erved in studies where objective diagnostic criteria for depression we re used. Conclusions: We conclude that the superior efficacy of antide pressants over placebo can be demonstrated.