• Hao Liu, Zhi-Min Yang, Ying Geng, Huan Yang, De-Heng Zhao, Wei-Dong Xiao, and Gao-Hua Wang.
• Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan Center for Drug Evaluation, China Food and Drug Administration, Beijing, China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2017 Oct 1; 96 (43): e8327e8327.

ObjectiveThe study aims to help domestic application units and research institutions improve their research quality of antidepressant clinical tests by studying and analyzing the current status and problems in selecting control drugs during domestic antidepressant clinical tests and illustrating some key problems that should be noted when selecting the control drug in such researches.MethodsConsidering the current domestic and overseas status of control drug selection in antidepressant clinical tests, various considerations, and misunderstandings on control drug selection in domestic antidepressant clinical tests were clarified and described, and possible factors that may influence the absolute effect of antidepressants were analyzed. Furthermore, problems that should be noted in selecting control drugs for the antidepressant clinical test, especially the placebo control, were stated.ResultsDuring the antidepressant clinical research, selecting placebo controls conform to moral philosophy and safety requirements. To verify the absolute effect of a test drug, a placebo control should be set or 3-arm tests should be conducted as far as possible. Possible factors that may affect the absolute effect of the test drug, including illness severity of the subject at baseline and research scale, should be given consideration.ConclusionsApplication units and research institutions should consider the selection of subjects, control the failure rate, strengthen safety risks, and control and intensify quality control to further improve the overall quality and research level of domestic antidepressant clinical tests.

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