No role for initial severity on the efficacy of antidepressants: results of a multi-meta-analysis

Table 1 Estimation of the overall effectiveness and magnitude of heterogeneity

Analyses	Effect size (CI/CrI)		Heterogeneity (CrI)		Role for initial severity		Respects randomisation
	RMD	SMD	RMD	SMD	RMD	SMD
Frequentist methods
Simple random effects meta-analysis	2.71 (1.96, 3.45)	0.33 (0.24, 0.42)	2.50	0.03			Yes
NMA random effects analysis			2.31	0.03			Yes
Meta-regression random effects analysis			1.57	0.02	Yes	Yes	Yes
Turner et al. (random effects meta-analysis)	-	0.31 (0.27, 0.35)	-	-	-	-	Yes
Khan et al., ratio of the number of early discontinued patients divided by the total number of patients in each group (chi-square is also calculated)	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	No
Kirsch et al. (weight by sample size/SD²)	1.80	0.32	-	-	-	Yes	No
Horder et al. (random effects meta-analysis)	2.70 (1.95, 3.44)	-	-	-	Yes	-	Meta-analysis: yes
Horder et al. (random effects meta-analysis)	2.70 (1.95, 3.44)	-	-	-	Yes	-	Meta-regression: no
Fountoulakis et al. (sample size weighting)	2.18	0.32	-	-	-	-	No
Fountoulakis et al. (inverse variance weighting)	2.68	0.35	-	-	-	-	No
Bayesian methods
Simple random effects meta-analysis	2.61 (1.94, 3.30)	0.32 (0.25, 0.40)	1.61 (0.53, 3.53)	0.02 (0.00, 0.05)			Yes
NMA random effects analysis			0.71 (0.24, 0.98)	0.01 (0.00, 0.05)			Yes
Simple random effects meta-regression analysis	2.77 (2.18, 3.36)	0.34 (0.27, 0.42)	0.58 (0.00, 2.13)	0.01 (0.00, 0.05)	Yes	No	Yes
Simple random effects meta-regression analysis using 12 different priors					Yes	No	Yes
NMA random effects meta-regression analysis			0.59 (0.01, 2.19)	0.01 (0.00, 0.05)	Yes	No	Yes
NMA random effects meta-regression using 12 different priors					Yes	No	Yes

Using the raw mean difference (RMD) and standardised mean difference (SMD) under both frequentist and Bayesian methods. In the frequentist approach, each variable is provided with its confidence interval (CI) and in the Bayesian methods with its credible interval (CrI). Each method is categorised according to its association with the role for initial severity and its respect to randomisation.

ISSN: 1744-859X