Cornelius 2016.

Methods	Randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial
Participants	14 depressed people with alcohol dependence (10 men and 4 women; mean age = 41.3 years) Inclusion criteria: aged 18‐55 years current DSM‐IV diagnoses of depression and alcohol dependence eligible for outpatient treatment Exclusion criteria: aged < 18 years or over 55 years presence of psychotic symptoms or a diagnosis involving psychosis receiving psychotropic medication in the prior month current DSM diagnosis of dependence or abuse on substances other than alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, or caffeine current significant medical or neurological condition suicidal ideation in the last 3 months, or lifetime suicidal attempt positive pregnancy test or breastfeeding inability or unwillingness to use contraceptive methods inability to read or understand study forms pending incarceration current participation in another research study Participants with bipolar disorder: information not available
Interventions	Drugs: mirtazapine (30 mg/day; 7 participants; 4 men and 3 women) placebo (7 participants; 6 men and 1 woman) Psychotherapy: brief MET at each assessment Scheduled duration of treatment: 12 weeks Site: University of Pittsburgh, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, USA Setting: outpatients Route of administration: orally Starting dose: 15 mg/day for the first 2 weeks then 30 mg/day for 12 weeks Pattern of dose reduction: information not available
Outcomes	Depression: final BDI score difference between baseline and final BDI score Alcohol dependence: number of drinking days per week number of drinks per drinking days number of drinks per week number of heavy drinking days per week Craving for alcohol: final OCDS score difference between baseline and final OCDS score Dropouts Adverse effects
Notes	Baseline characteristics of participants Depression: primary depression: information not available duration: information not available BDI score (mean ± SD): mirtazapine = 27.6 ± 7.7; placebo = 26.1 ± 11.7 Alcohol dependence: severity: information not available duration: information not available number of drinks per drinking day (mean ± SD): 6.6 ± 2.0 being actively drinking: participants were not abstinent Other psychiatric comorbidity: participants with other mental disorders were excluded. Other substance use disorders: participants with substance use disorders were excluded. Other characteristics of study Other pharmacological treatment: participants did not receive other pharmacological treatments. Funding sources: study received grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R21 AA022123, R21 AA022863, R01 AA013370, R01 AA015173, K24 AA15320) and from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA019142, P50 DA05605, K02 DA017822). Declarations of interest: information not available
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information about sequence generation process to permit judgement of low or high risk.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method of concealment not described.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Medications were identical in appearance (identical‐looking opaque capsules).
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) objective	Low risk	Medications were identical in appearance (identical‐looking opaque capsules).
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) subjective	Unclear risk	No information on the blinding of outcome assessors.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Intention‐to‐treat approach reported.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	No dropouts