is associated with worse long-term outcome and greater
overall disability.
When faced with a sick patient, clinicians choose the
best available option for that patient, factoring into the
decision all aspects unique to that particular individual
(i.e. personality, cognitive ability, other medical illness,
substance use, prior history, risk of self-harm, family
dynamics, etc.). Certainly, controlled trials should be
considered, but the physician or therapist knows much
more about the patient than just the percent response
of symptomatic volunteers, including knowing the
patient’s overall severity, past history of response to previous
treatment, symptom constellation, psychological
and environmental factors, family history and the risks
of treatment. Should available therapies not be used
because they do not meet an unattainable standard of
evidence? Should we postpone treatment until we have
the perfect therapy? The failure to treat has consequences.
Most surgical treatments are not proven by
double-blind studies and can, therefore, be criticized.
There are treatments that should not be used, even if
the patient wants them. But, does Ioannidis offer sufficient
rigorous evidence that antidepressants are one of
these?
Are Antidepressants Efficacious?
The primary clinical treatment efficacy outcome markers
are response, remission, and relapse. Response is the
degree to which an antidepressant or placebo reduces the
severity of the depression. The definition of response in
most antidepressant studies is a 50% symptom reduction.
Remission is considered as a full response, with absence
of depressive symptomatology. Some patients have some
degree of response and do not become fully remitted.
Response and remission are generally parallel. Relapse,
however, is when a patient improves and later develops
another depressive episode.
Physicians initiate a plan of care and monitor patients
for evidence of reduction of symptoms (response). Efforts
to optimize treatment outcome to achieve a full remission
are important because of the increased risk of relapse in
those patients who only achieve partial remission. Patients
who achieve partial response or partial remission are more
likely to relapse and have greater mortality and morbidity.
Antidepressants are not a cure. Many patients are not fully
remitted. Almost all of the patients will relapse once they
stop taking the medication and some have residual
symptoms.
Ioannidis presents very little actual data to support his
conclusion that antidepressants are not efficacious, which
is based essentially on one effect size from one study
(Turner) [3]. This study is based primarily on data from
mildly depressed patients and non-patient volunteers for
a few antidepressants of the many ever studied, with an