BROADCASTS.com

I.

The big news in psychiatry this month is Cipriani et al\u2019s\xa0Comparative efficacy and acceptability of 21 antidepressant drugs for the acute treatment of adults with major depressive disorder: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. It purports to be the last word in the \u201cdo antidepressants work?\u201d question, and a first (or at least early) word in the under-asked \u201cwhich antidepressants are best?\u201d question.

This study is very big, very sophisticated, and must have taken a very impressive amount of work. It meta-analyzes virtually every RCT of antidepressants ever done \u2013 522 in all \u2013 then throws every statistical trick in the book at them to try to glob together into a coherent account of how antidepressants work. It includes Andrea Cipriani, one of the most famous research psychiatrists in the world \u2013 and John Ioannidis, one of the most famous statisticians. It\u2019s been covered in news sources around the world: my favorite headline is Newsweek\u2019s unsubtle\xa0Antidepressants Do Work And Many More People Should Take Them, but honorable mention to Reuters\u2019\xa0Study Seeks To End Antidepressant Debate: The Drugs Do Work.