Design Makes a Difference: A Meta-Analysis of Antidepressant Response Rates in Placebo-Controlled Versus Comparator Trials in Late-Life Depression

Antidepressant response rates are higher in comparator trials as compared to placebo-controlled trials. These findings have important implications for combined medication and psychotherapy trials that use placebo-controlled medication conditions because the response rates from these conditions are likely to be lower than those from unblinded conditions.