What predicts response to sertraline for people with depression in primary care? a secondary data analysis of moderators in the PANDA trial

Purpose: Antidepressants are a first-line treatment for depression, yet many patients do not respond. There is a need to understand which patients have greater treatment response but there is little research on patient characteristics that moderate the effectiveness of antidepressants. This study examined potential moderators of response to antidepressant treatment. Methods: The PANDA trial investigated the clinical effectiveness of sertraline (n = 326) compared with placebo (n = 329) in primary care patients with depressive symptoms. We investigated 11 potential moderators of treatment effect (age, employment, suicidal ideation, marital status, financial difficulty, education, social support, family history of depression, life events, health and past antidepressant use). Using multiple linear regression, we investigated the appropriate interaction term for each of these potential moderators with treatment as allocated. Results: Family history of depression was the only variable with weak evidence of effect modification (p-value for interaction = 0.048), such that those with no family history of depression may have greater benefit from antidepressant treatment. We found no evidence of effect modification (p-value for interactions≥0.29) by any of the other ten variables. Conclusion: Evidence for treatment moderators was extremely limited, supporting an approach of continuing discuss antidepressant treatment with all patients presenting with moderate to severe depressive symptoms.