Interpreting antidepressant clinical trials.
BACKGROUND
Psychiatrists and other clinicians make decisions about antidepressant medications with little understanding on how to interpret the research literature.


METHODS
Pertinent clinical literature is reviewed.


RESULTS
The author reviews levels of evidence, study design, statistical significance, p values, defining outcomes, drop outs, and basic analytic strategies such as last observation carried forward and mixed-effects model repeated measures. Several recent clinical trials are dissected to illustrate these concepts.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians need to develop greater sophistication at interpreting research findings. No single study is definitive, and comparative antidepressant trials suffer from low statistical power.
Sussman
Norman
N
NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. sussman01@aol.com
D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians
D000928:Antidepressive Agents