Antidepressant treatment response rate

Method

Proportion of patients meeting a protocol-defined response criterion on a depression rating scale, conventionally at least a 50% reduction from baseline on the HDRS or MADRS, pooled as a risk ratio or odds ratio. The scale and the threshold are recorded on the edge.

The method is part of the endpoint identity. Studies measuring the same quantity by a different method are held as separate endpoints.

Notes

Confused with the depression remission rate, which is defined by an absolute score falling below a cut-off rather than by a relative reduction; the two dissociate within a single meta-analysis, because a patient can halve a very high score without reaching remission. Also confused with the OCD treatment response rate, defined against the Y-BOCS in a different disorder. And it is a dichotomisation of the Hamilton scale score, so the two must not both be counted from one analysis as independent evidence. SIGN NOTE: this proportion improves by RISING, unlike the adverse-event, relapse, and withdrawal proportions reported from the same trials in the same unit.