Context Antidepressant medications represent the best established treatment for major
depressive disorder, but there is little evidence that they have a specific pharmacological
effect relative to pill placebo for patients with less severe depression. Objective To estimate
the relative benefit of medication vs placebo across a wide range of initial symptom severity
in patients diagnosed with depression. Data Sources PubMed, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane
Library databases were searched from January 1980 through March 2009, along with …