21 Antidepressants Compared: Which Work Best for Depression?
Which Antidepressants Work Best for Major Depression?
A landmark network meta-analysis published in The Lancet analyzed 522 randomized controlled trials involving 116,477 patients to provide the first comprehensive head-to-head comparison of 21 antidepressants. This study definitively ranks antidepressants by both effectiveness and tolerability, revealing that amitriptyline is the most effective antidepressant (OR 2.13 vs placebo) while agomelatine and fluoxetine are the most tolerable, being the only antidepressants associated with fewer dropouts than placebo.