Comment. Many patients with clinical depression, particularly those with recurrent illness, are treated with maintenance antidepressants after an acute-phase response. But how effective is this approach? The effectiveness of maintenance treatment is most commonly tested in trials with a discontinuation design,1 in which patients who have already responded to a treatment are randomly assigned to either ongoing treatment or placebo. Such studies provide a measure of the benefit of maintenance treatment over discontinuation. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai