We also searched the bibliographies of primary and review articles for additional studies. We excluded trials of patients with neuropathic, oncologic, or degenerative joint pain. Independent duplicate review of 392 articles identified 94 relevant reports of randomized trials involving 6595 patients across 6 symptom syndromes. Independent duplicate assessment was made for inclusion and data abstraction. Symptom improvement typically did not correlate with depression response in the few studies where it was assessed.
Antidepressants can be effective for various physical symptoms and symptom syndromes.
The relation of outcome to depression and the efficacy of SSRIs needs further study.