For how we live.
In two randomised trials, a grief-specific psychotherapy roughly doubled response rates against strong comparators. Citalopram alone did not beat placebo — but it did help the depression that often travels with grief.
Pooled trials put the herb roughly on a par with standard antidepressants for mild-to-moderate depression, with fewer dropouts for side effects. The catches are dangerous drug interactions and wildly variable products.
In a 619-patient NEJM trial of treatment-resistant depression after 60, augmenting an antidepressant with aripiprazole improved well-being more than switching to bupropion. The margin was modest.
In the trial that pitted them against each other, aerobic exercise matched sertraline on remission. But both sat only a little above a strikingly strong placebo, which is the part the headlines skip.
The largest meta-analysis puts the incidence attributable to the drug at about 15% — one in six or seven. Critics who reanalysed part of it put it above 50%. The gap is about what counts as evidence.
In the largest trial, combining fluoxetine with talking therapy helped most, and both worked better than placebo. A later network analysis found only fluoxetine, alone or with therapy, clearly beat placebo.
A network meta-analysis of 101 trials and 11,910 patients found no significant difference between psychotherapy and medication for adult depression — and a consistent advantage for combining them.
Adding the antipsychotic to an antidepressant beat placebo in two phase 3 trials. But the dose that worked in one failed in the other — a wrinkle worth carrying into the prescription.
Pooling 151 studies and 58,534 participants across 30 drugs, researchers ranked antidepressants by physiological side effects rather than efficacy. Some drugs raised cholesterol while reducing body weight.