The effect of sertraline on emotional processing: secondary analyses of the PANDA randomised controlled trial

• DOI: 10.1017/s0033291720004985
• Publication Date: 2021-01-13T01:21:32Z
• Authors: Norin Ahmed; Jessica K. Bone; Gemma Lewis; Nick Freemantle; Catherine J. Harmer; Larisa Duffy; Glyn Lewis
• Keywords: Sertraline; Depression

Abstract Background According to the cognitive neuropsychological model, antidepressants reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety by increasing positive relative negative information processing. Most studies whether alter emotional processing use small samples healthy individuals, which lead low statistical power selection bias are difficult generalise clinical practice. We tested selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sertraline altered recall in a large randomised controlled trial (RCT) patients with depressive recruited from primary care. Methods The PANDA was pragmatic multicentre double-blind RCT comparing placebo. Memory for personality descriptors at baseline 2 6 weeks after randomisation using computerised categorisation task followed free recall. measured number words correctly recalled (hits). Poisson mixed models were used analyse longitudinal associations between treatment allocation hits. Results A total 576 participants (88% those randomised) completed weeks. found no evidence that or hits differed according (adjusted ratio = 0.97, 95% CI 0.90–1.05, p 0.52; adjusted 0.99, 0.90–1.08, 0.76). Conclusions In largest individual placebo-controlled an antidepressant not funded pharmaceutical industry, we early treatment. These findings challenge some assumptions model action.