Cited by 56Traumatic Brain Injury ResearchTreatment of Major DepressionTraumatic Brain Injury and Neurovascular Disturbances

The Effect of Antidepressants on Depression After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Meta-analysis

Open access
Kreitzer, Natalie, Ancona, Rachel, McCullumsmith, Cheryl, Kurowski, Brad G., Foreman, Brandon, Ngwenya, Laura B., Adeoye, Opeolu·2019·Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation

Abstract

Objective: Following traumatic brain injury (TBI), depressive symptoms are common and may influence recovery. We performed a meta-analysis to estimate the benefit of antidepressants following TBI and compare the estimated effects between antidepressants and placebo. Participants: Multiple databases were searched to find prospective pharmacological treatment studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults following TBI. Main Measures: Effect sizes for antidepressant medications in patients with TBI were calculated for within-subjects designs that examined change from baseline after receiving medical treatment and treatment/placebo designs that examined the differences between the antidepressants and placebo groups. Design: A random-effects model was used for both analyses. Results: Of 1028 titles screened, 11 were included. Pooled estimates showed nonsignificant difference in reduction of depression scores between medications and placebo (standardized mean difference of 5 trials = −0.3; 95% CI, −0.6 to 0.0; I 2 = 17%), and a significant reduction in depression scores for individuals after pharmacotherapy (mean change = −11.2; 95% CI, −14.7 to −7.6 on the Hamilton Depression Scale; I 2 = 87%). Conclusions: This meta-analysis found no significant benefit of antidepressant over placebo in the treatment of MDD following TBI. Pooled estimates showed a high degree of bias and heterogeneity. Prospective studies on the impact of antidepressants in well-defined cohorts of TBI patients are warranted.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1097/htr.0000000000000439

Cites

63 of 63 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 65 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [14]Silver JM, Hales RE, Yudofsky SC. Psychopharmacology of depression in neurologic disorders. J Clin Psychiatry. 1990; 51 (suppl): 33– 39. 2404002
  2. [22]Higgins JP, Green S. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Vol 4. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons; 2011.
  3. [25]Viechtbauer W. Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metaphor Package. J Stat Software. 2010; 36(3): 1– 48. http://www.jstatsoft.org/v36/i03. fAccessed November 28, 2017.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kreitzer, N., Ancona, R., McCullumsmith, C., Kurowski, B. G., Foreman, B., Ngwenya, L. B., & Adeoye, O.
Affiliations
University of Cincinnati (US)
Venue
Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation
Published
2019-05
Volume
34
Issue
3
Pages
E47-E54
ISSN
0885-9701 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2889109390
Cited by
56
References
65
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6
FWCI
0.82
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (T32NS047996)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Traumatic Brain Injury Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurovascular Disturbances
Keywords
antidepressants, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic depression, major depressive disorder, pharmacotherapy, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, depression treatment
MeSH terms
Brain Injuries, Traumatic, Antidepressive Agents, Depressive Disorder, Humans

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review