{"id":47153,"date":"2014-06-12T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=47153"},"modified":"2014-06-12T09:08:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T13:08:41","slug":"after-all-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/12\/after-all-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"after all, the point…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Ever wonder how we knew if a treatment helped people or not before Randomized Clinical Trials? Seems almost imponderable to think about, but it was pretty easy. We just asked them. In this meta-analysis of the antidepressant trials of SSRIs in children and adolescents, Spielmans and Gerwig compiled the subjects own ratings of how they did, comparing the drug and placebo responses: <\/div>\n
\n
The Efficacy of Antidepressants on Overall Well-Being and Self-Reported Depression Symptom Severity in Youth: A Meta-Analysis<\/a><\/div>\n
by Glen I. Spielmans and Katherine Gerwig<\/div>\n
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics<\/font><\/strong>. 2014 83:158–164.<\/div>\n


<\/font><\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Background<\/font><\/strong><\/u>: Recent meta-analyses of the efficacy of second- generation antidepressants for youth have concluded that such drugs possess a statistically significant advantage over placebo in terms of clinician-rated depressive symptoms. However, no meta-analysis has included measures of quality of life, global mental health, self-esteem, or autonomy. Further, prior meta-analyses have not included self-reports of depressive symptoms.<\/div>\n
Methods<\/font><\/strong><\/u>: Studies were selected through searching Medline, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials databases as well as GlaxoSmithKline’s online trial registry. We included self-reports of depressive symptoms and pooled measures of quality of life, global mental health, self-esteem, and autonomous functioning as a proxy for overall well-being.<\/div>\n
Results<\/font><\/strong><\/u>: We found a nonsignificant difference between second- generation antidepressants and placebo in terms of self-reported depressive symptoms [k = 6 trials, g = 0.06, p = 0.36]. Further, pooled across measures of quality of life, global mental health, self-esteem, and autonomy, antidepressants yielded no significant advantage over placebo [k = 3 trials, g = 0.11, p = 0.13].<\/div>\n
Discussion<\/font><\/strong><\/u>: Though limited by a small number of trials, our analyses suggest that antidepressants offer little to no benefit in improving overall well-being among depressed children and adolescents.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
The table summarizes placebo versus treatment responses. Notice that none of subjects self rating showed a significant difference between SSRI and Placebo groups. Note also that in the two instances where the clinician  ratings were significant, the Effect Sizes were only 0.25 and 0.21 which are in the small range. The results couldn’t be clearer. From the point of view of the subjects themselves, there was no perceived effect from the medication [which is, after all, the point of taking it].<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever wonder how we knew if a treatment helped people or not before Randomized Clinical Trials? Seems almost imponderable to think about, but it was pretty easy. We just asked them. In this meta-analysis of the antidepressant trials of SSRIs in children and adolescents, Spielmans and Gerwig compiled the subjects own ratings of how they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47153"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47173,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47153\/revisions\/47173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}