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- Boschloo, L., et al.
(författare)
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The complex clinical response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in depression: a network perspective
- 2023
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Ingår i: Translational Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2158-3188. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The clinical response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in depression takes weeks to be fully developed and is still not entirely understood. This study aimed to determine the direct and indirect effects of SSRIs relative to a placebo control condition on clinical symptoms of depression. We included data of 8262 adult patients with major depression participating in 28 industry-sponsored US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered trials on the efficacy of SSRIs. Clinical symptoms of depression were assessed by the 17 separate items of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) after 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 weeks of treatment. Network estimation techniques showed that SSRIs had quick and strong direct effects on the two affective symptoms, i.e., depressed mood and psychic anxiety; direct effects on other symptoms were weak or absent. Substantial indirect effects were found for all four cognitive symptoms, which showed larger reductions in the SSRI condition but mainly in patients reporting larger reductions in depressed mood. Smaller indirect effects were found for two arousal/somatic symptoms via the direct effect on psychic anxiety. Both direct and indirect effects on sleep problems and most arousal/somatic symptoms were weak or absent. In conclusion, our study revealed that SSRIs primarily caused reductions in affective symptoms, which were related to reductions in mainly cognitive symptoms and some specific arousal/somatic symptoms. The results can contribute to disclosing the mechanisms of action of SSRIs, and has the potential to facilitate early detection of responders and non-responders in clinical practice.
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- Hieronymus, Fredrik, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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A mega-analysis of fixed-dose trials reveals dose-dependency and a rapid onset of action for the antidepressant effect of three selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
- 2016
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Ingår i: Translational Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2158-3188. ; 6:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The possible dose-dependency for the antidepressant effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) remains controversial. We believe we have conducted the first comprehensive patient-level mega-analysis exploring this issue, one incentive being to address the possibility that inclusion of low-dose arms in previous meta-analyses may have caused an underestimation of the efficacy of these drugs. All company-sponsored, acute-phase, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose trials using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and conducted to evaluate the effect of citalopram, paroxetine or sertraline in adult major depression were included (11 trials, n = 2859 patients). The single-item depressed mood, which has proven a more sensitive measure to detect an antidepressant signal than the sum score of all HDRS items, was designated the primary effect parameter. Doses below or at the lower end of the usually recommended dose range (citalopram: 10-20 mg, paroxetine: 10 mg; sertraline: 50 mg) were superior to placebo but inferior to higher doses, hence confirming a dose-dependency to be at hand. In contrast, among doses above these, there was no indication of a dose-response relationship. The effect size (ES) after exclusion of suboptimal doses was of a more respectable magnitude (0.5) than that usually attributed to the antidepressant effect of the SSRIs. In conclusion, the observation that low doses are less effective than higher ones challenges the oft-cited view that the effect of the SSRIs is not dose-dependent and hence not caused by a specific, pharmacological antidepressant action. Moreover, we suggest that inclusion of suboptimal doses in previous meta-analyses has led to an underestimation of the efficacy of these drugs.
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| 5. |
- Hieronymus, Fredrik, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Consistent superiority of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors over placebo in reducing depressed mood in patients with major depression.
- 2016
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Ingår i: Molecular psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-5578 .- 1359-4184. ; 21:4, s. 523-30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The recent questioning of the antidepressant effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is partly based on the observation that approximately half of company-sponsored trials have failed to reveal a significant difference between active drug and placebo. Most of these have applied the Hamilton depression rating scale to assess symptom severity, the sum score for its 17 items (HDRS-17-sum) serving as effect parameter. In this study, we examined whether the negative outcomes of many SSRI trials may be partly caused by the use of this frequently questioned measure of response. We undertook patient-level post-hoc analyses of 18 industry-sponsored placebo-controlled trials regarding paroxetine, citalopram, sertraline or fluoxetine, and including in total 6669 adults with major depression, the aim being to assess what the outcome would have been if the single item depressed mood (rated 0-4) had been used as a measure of efficacy. In total, 32 drug-placebo comparisons were reassessed. While 18 out of 32 comparisons (56%) failed to separate active drug from placebo at week 6 with respect to reduction in HDRS-17-sum, only 3 out of 32 comparisons (9%) were negative when depressed mood was used as an effect parameter (P<0.001). The observation that 29 out of 32 comparisons detected an antidepressant signal from the tested SSRI suggests the effect of these drugs to be more consistent across trials than previously assumed. Further, the frequent use of the HDRS-17-sum as an effect parameter may have distorted the current view on the usefulness of SSRIs and hampered the development of novel antidepressants.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 28 April 2015; doi:10.1038/mp.2015.53.
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- Hieronymus, Fredrik, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Do side effects of antidepressants impact efficacy estimates based on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale? A pooled patient-level analysis
- 2021
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Ingår i: Translational Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2158-3188. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17) measures symptoms that may overlap with common antidepressant side effects (e.g., sexual dysfunction), thus making it possible that side effects of antidepressant treatment are erroneously rated as symptoms of depression, and vice versa. This study uses patient-level data from previously conducted antidepressant treatment trials to assess whether side effect ratings co-vary with HDRS-17 ratings. Data from all HDRS-17-rated, industry-sponsored pre- and post-marketing trials (n = 4647) comparing the serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, duloxetine, to placebo and/or to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor were pooled; three studies, which utilised sub-therapeutic doses, did not have symptom-level ratings available and could not be included. Severity was assessed for side effects related to sleep, somatic anxiety, gastrointestinal function, and sexual dysfunction. Analysis of covariance was used to assess the relation between these side effects and ratings of relevant HDRS-17-derived outcome parameters. Side effects related to sleep, somatic anxiety and sexual dysfunction significantly and exclusively associated with higher scores on HDRS-17 items measuring the corresponding domains. Side effects related to gastrointestinal function associated with higher HDRS-17 item scores on all assessed domains. Treatment outcome was significantly related to side effect severity when assessed using HDRS-17-sum (beta 0.32 (0.074), p < 0.001), but not when the HDRS-6-sum-score (beta 0.035 (0.043), p = 0.415) or the depressed mood item (beta 0.007 (0.012), p = .527) were used as effect parameters. That some HDRS-17 items co-vary with common antidepressant side effects suggests some of these adverse events are counted twice, potentially leading to an underestimation of antidepressant efficacy.
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- Hieronymus, Fredrik, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the absence of side effects: a mega-analysis of citalopram and paroxetine in adult depression
- 2018
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Ingår i: Molecular Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-5578 .- 1359-4184. ; 23:8, s. 1731-1736
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It has been suggested that the superiority of antidepressants over placebo in controlled trials is merely a consequence of side effects enhancing the expectation of improvement by making the patient realize that he/she is not on placebo. We explored this hypothesis in a patient-level post hoc-analysis including all industry-sponsored, Food and Drug Administration-registered placebo-controlled trials of citalopram or paroxetine in adult major depression that used the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and included a week 6 symptom assessment (n=15). The primary analyses, which compared completers on active treatment without early adverse events to completers on placebo (with or without adverse events) with respect to reduction in the HDRS depressed mood item showed larger symptom reduction in patients given active treatment, the effect sizes being 0.48 for citalopram and 0.33 for paroxetine. In actively treated subjects reporting early adverse events, who also outperformed those given placebo, the severity of the adverse events did not predict response. Several sensitivity analyses, for example, including (i) those using change of the sum of all HDRS-17 items as effect parameter, (ii) those excluding all subjects with adverse events (that is, also those on placebo) and (iii) those based on the intention-to-treat population, were all in line with the primary analyses. The finding that both paroxetine and citalopram are clearly superior to placebo also when not producing adverse events, as well as the lack of association between adverse event severity and response, argue against the theory that antidepressants outperform placebo solely or largely because of their side effects.
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- Hieronymus, Fredrik, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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GOOD NEWS REGARDING SSRI SAFETY IN DANISH META-ANALYSIS.
- 2020
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Ingår i: Acta neuropsychiatrica. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1601-5215 .- 0924-2708. ; 32:1, s. 54-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In two previous letters on an SSRI meta-analysis conducted by the Copenhagen Trial Unit at Copenhagen University Hospital, we have commented on a large number of errors, almost all of which have tilted the results in an anti-drug direction, that unfortunately mar this publication. While the authors have acknowledged many of these mishaps, and may now be expected to submit an extensive errata list to the journal where their paper was once published, we regretfully note that also their latest contribution to this exchange is surprisingly inaccurate. However, its many shortcomings notwithstanding, their meta-analysis does add to the current literature by confirming that SSRIs do not seem to enhance the risk for suicide or death, and also that these drugs seem to enhance the risk of side effects categorized as serious only in the elderly.
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