An FDA advisory panel has recommended that TMS not be approved for the treatment of major depression. Neuronetics, the maker of the NeuroStar device (www.neuronetics.com), submitted data from three studies, but only one was a placebo-controlled double-blind trial (Study 101).

Dr. Oransky, as Deputy Editor of The Scientist, I know that you spend a great deal of time looking at medical statistics, and you do an excellent job of making these concepts understandable in your column in CNS News, Statistically Speaking.

Here are TCPR’s guidelines for how to deal with SSRI non-response.

Another study has been published on the controversial issue of whether antidepressants increase the risk of suicidality in children.

I know that you published a famous meta-analysis several years ago in which you compared the remission rates of patients on venlafaxine with SSRIs and placebo. Can you remind us of what that study showed?

The first patient to receive a modern antidepressant was Paula J. F., a Swiss woman admitted to the Munsterlingen asylum with depression.

The latest foray into the controversial issue of antidepressant-induced switching appeared in the February issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry (2006;163:232-239). The last time TCPR took up this topic (June 2005), we reviewed a meta-analysis of antidepressant use in bipolar disorder. That paper concluded that SSRIs cause the same rate of manic switching as placebo (Am J Psychiatry 2004;161:1537-1547). The authors of the newly published research would beg to differ.

While it’s certainly interesting to theorize about neurotransmitters and antidepressants, the recent STAR*D findings bring up a difficult topic: Does mechanism matter?

When National Public Radio’s Science Friday devotes most of a program to a psychiatric study, it must be newsworthy. The STAR*D study got this special treatment recently, with Ira Flato interviewing John Rush about the ins and outs of the NIMH-funded project.

Because the first results from STAR*D make antidepressants look less powerful than we might have hoped, researchers have emphasized another aspect of the study – namely, that it represents a system that allows us to bring research techniques into our practices. A review of the STAR*D treatment manual is a useful exercise.