Placebo-Controlled, Antidepressant Clinical Trials Cannot Be Shortened to Less Than 4 Weeks' Duration: A Pooled Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials Employing a Diagnostic Odds Ratio--Based Approach.

The article discusses a study to determine whether placebo-controlled antidepressant trials and major depressive disorder (MDD) can be shortened to less than four weeks. It examined the relationship between a positive or negative finding and outcome at end point in MDD placebo-controlled trials. The cutoff of 1980 was used in the research and final inclusion of articles was determined by consensus among authors. It concludes that antidepressant clinical trials cannot be shortened to less than 4 weeks to reliably detect drug versus placebo differences.