Preskorn 1983.

Methods	6‐week, double‐blind, randomised, multi‐centre study, placebo wash‐out unclear
Participants	Psychiatric inpatients meeting DSM‐III criteria for major depressive disorder, threshold baseline severity not reported Age: range (of all allocated patients) 18 to 82 years Sex: no data Exclusion criteria: recent alcohol or drug abuse, schizophrenia, organic brain syndrome, seizure disorder, pregnancy, severe medical illness, medical contraindications to amitriptyline chemotherapy
Interventions	Amitriptyline: number of participants unclear Placebo: number of participants unclear Amitriptyline dose: ascending dosage regimen, doses not reported
Outcomes	Primary outcome: plasma concentrations, HAM‐D Secondary outcome: Anxiety Rating Scale
Notes	Sponsor: NIH Research Scientist Development Award, Burroughs Wellcome Company (Bupropion) Response: no definition, no data Remission: no definition, no data 3‐arm study comparing bupropion to amitriptyline and placebo (total 61 participants)
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method not described, assumed, because it is a double‐blind study
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Quote: "Multi‐centre double‐blind study", no further details
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Quote: "Multi‐centre double‐blind study", no details on blinding of assessor
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Drop‐outs not indicated, unclear whether there were any
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Only data for bupropion‐treated patients reported
Other bias	Low risk	No obvious other bias