On March 23rd the Washington Post reported in a front-page article on the findings just released from NIMH’s 35-million dollar “Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression” study. The study results were met with mixed reviews. The url:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032202450.html
The results from this study were published in three articles and discussed in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM):
- The 1st article appeared in the January 2006 American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP) and focused on the initial response to citalopram (an SSRI) by 2,876 patients presenting with major depression in either a psychiatric clinic or primary care setting.
- The 2nd article appeared in last week’s NEJM and focused on the effectiveness of bupropion, sertraline, or venlaffaxine for patients who failed to respond to citalopram.
- The 3rd article appeared in last week’s NEJM and focused on medication “augmentation” by adding either bupropion or buspirone to citalopram for those patients who failed to respond to citalopram alone.
Continue reading “A Critique of NIMH’s Major Study of Anti-Depressant Effectiveness”