Antidepressant relapse linked to placebo effect

PROVIDENCE – Newly published research from Rhode Island Hospital indicates that patents who relapse during antidepressant continuation treatment may never have responded to the drug at all, but rather may have simply felt better due to the placebo effect.
Depression treatment is typically classified in three phases: initial/acute, continuation and maintenance. During the initial phase, the goal is to reduce symptoms and psychosocial impairment. During the continuation phase, usually six months to one year after initial treatment response, the goal is to maintain the gains and prevent a relapse. In the maintenance phase, which occurs after a sustained period of improvement, the goal is to further maintain the gains and prevent recurrence of the disorder.
The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, involved a meta-analysis of continuation studies of new-generation antidepressants.
Treatment studies of depression have found that about 50 to 65 percent of patients respond to medication and about 25 to 35 percent respond to placebo. The researchers used a formula to calculate the relapse rate attributable to relapse in presumptive placebo responders.