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James C. Coyne, PhD

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The abortive clinical trial by Lydiatt et al¹ evaluating the use of antidepressants for the prevention of major depression among patients with head and neck cancer is misleading and a travesty in terms of the presentation and interpretation of its results. The upbeat conclusion provided in the abstract has been widely disseminated in the media but should be disqualified because the study was stopped prematurely, intent-to-treat analyses were not conducted, and nonsignificant findings were obtained for the primary outcome.

The incidence of major depression in patients with head and neck cancer is not well documented, but a report stating that 5 of 10 patients in the placebo group developed major depression strains credibility, particularly when readers are not provided with confidence intervals. Lydiatt and colleagues ignored the lack of positive results in previous studies that provided antidepressants to patients with cancer who were selected because they . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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