SynthesisChinese medical journal2025
Efficacy and dose-response relationships of antidepressants in the acute treatment of major depressive disorders: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Chinese medical journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associations of depressive symptoms and antidepressant medication use with physical function among middle-aged adults: Results from the CARDIA Function study.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Reduced Plasma Aβ Peptides but Stable NfL and GFAP in Major Depressive Disorder.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Interplay between the gut microbiota and MAPK/NF-κ B/Nrf2 signaling in depression: pharmacological insights from traditional Chinese medicine.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- EPIDEP: Prevalence of undiagnosed depression in an epilepsy outpatient clinic.Epilepsy & behavior reports · 2025Article
- New Agents in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: What Innovations and in What Areas of Psychopathology?Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Pharmacological Monotherapy for Depressive Disorders: Current and Future-A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Review
- Efficacy and safety of toludesvenlafaxine hydrochloride sustained-release tablets in depression with ineffective or partially effective initial antidepressant treatment: a single-arm, multicenter clinical study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Efficacy and safety of GW117 tablets in major depressive disorder: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 dose-finding study.General psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe optimal antidepressant dosages remain controversial. This study aimed to analyze the efficacy of antidepressants and characterize their dose-response relationships in the treatments of major depressive disorders (MDD).
methodsWe searched multiple databases, including the Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, and Web of Science, for the studies that were conducted between January 8, 2016, and April 30, 2023. The studies are double-blinded, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving the adults (≥18 years) with MDD. The primary outcomes were efficacy of antidepressant and the dose-response relationships. A frequentist network meta-analysis was conducted, treating participants with various dosages of the same antidepressant as a single therapy. We also implemented the model-based meta-analysis (MBMA) using a Bayesian method to explore the dose-response relationships.
resultsThe network meta-analysis comprised 135,180 participants from 602 studies. All the antidepressants were more effective than the placebo; toludesvenlafaxine had the highest odds ratio (OR) of 4.52 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.65-7.72), and reboxetine had the lowest OR of 1.34 (95%CI: 1.14-1.57). Moreover, amitriptyline, clomipramine, and reboxetine showed a linear increase in effect size from low to high doses. The effect size of toludesvenlafaxine increased significantly up to 80 mg/day and subsequently maintained the maximal dose up to 160 mg/day while the predictive curves of nefazodone were fairly flat in different dosages.
conclusionsAlthough most antidepressants were more efficacious than placebo in treating MDD, no consistent dose-response relationship between any antidepressants was observed. For most antidepressants, the maximum efficacy was achieved at lower or middle prescribed doses, rather than at the upper limit. REGISTRATION: No. CRD42023427480; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.