Letter

Antidepressant trials generally have methodological defects

BMJ 2001; 323 doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7312.574 (Published 8 September 2001)
Cite this as: BMJ 2001;323:574.1

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  1. Christian Even, praticien hospitalier (evenlafitte@compuserve.com),
  2. Serge Friedman, attaché de consultation,
  3. Roland Dardennes, praticien hospitalier
  1. Hôpital Sainte-Anne, Clinique des Maladies Mentales et de l'Encéphale (Service du Pr Guelfi), Université Paris V, 75674 Paris Cedex 14, France

    EDITOR—The study reported by Woelk tried to show the antidepressant properties of St John's wort,1 but its methodology was subsequently much criticised.2 We put the four major criticisms together to form a short “methodological quality” checklist and added one item regarding the integrity of blindness: the checklist assessed use of remission criteria; use of a three arm design; use of an active placebo; individual determination of the dose of the reference compound; and evaluation …

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