TADS study raises concerns

EDITOR—We have additional concerns to those raised by Lenzer about the adolescents with depression study (TADS).1 2 TADS consists of two separate randomised studies: a double blind comparison of fluoxetine (109 subjects) with placebo (112), and an unblinded comparison between cognitive behaviour therapy alone (111) and fluoxetine plus cognitive behaviour therapy (107). The lack of patient blinding and placebo control in the latter group is likely to exaggerate the benefit seen in the fluoxetine plus cognitive behaviour therapy group, who receive more face to …