Antidepressant effectiveness and clinical importance
Most antidepressant trials were done decades ago by pharmaceutical companies and were of people with severe depression recruited from specialist services. Antidepressants are now given to a much broader range of people including those with less severe depression. The PANDA trial studied the effectiveness of the SSRI antidepressant sertraline in a population more like those currently receiving antidepressants in UK primary care. We found evidence that it reduced anxiety symptoms but the effect on depressive symptoms was modest and appeared some weeks later.

We have also investigated how we can decide if treatment differences are clinically important by using an “anchor” method to establish the minimal clinically important difference for depressive symptom and anxiety scales. This is best estimated using a percentage rather than an absolute difference. I will discuss how these results can be applied to PANDA and in future to provide better guidance on prescribing antidepressants.
Date: 21 January 2020, 9:30 (Tuesday, 1st week, Hilary 2020)
Venue: Warneford Hospital, Headington OX3 7JX
Venue Details: Seminar Room, Department of Psychiatry
Speaker: Professor Glyn Lewis (University College London)
Organising department: Department of Psychiatry
Organiser: Elizabeth Thomas (University of Oxford)
Part of: Psychiatry Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Elizabeth Thomas