| Study | Reason for exclusion |
|---|---|
| Alexopoulos 2000 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (16 weeks of continuation treatment; duration of acute treatment not reported; total duration < 6 months) |
| Allgulander 2006 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Baldwin 2006 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Baldwin 2012 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Bockting 2005 | Intervention is not discontinuation of antidepressant treatment |
| Bockting 2006 | Intervention is not discontinuation of antidepressant treatment |
| Bockting 2008 | Study is not an RCT |
| Bockting 2009 | Wrong study design (long‐term follow‐up study) |
| Boulenger 2012 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Caillard 2003 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Cohen 2006 | Study was not a randomised discontinuation trial |
| Coppen 1978 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration of antidepressant treatment not described) |
| Croft 2002 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Curtis 1993 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Davidson 2001 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants prescribed for depressive or anxiety disorder |
| Davidson 2005 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants prescribed for depressive or anxiety disorder |
| Davidson 2005a | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants; there is no control intervention |
| Davidson 2008 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (mean duration of antidepressant treatment 136 days) |
| Dinan 2001 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Dobson 2008 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Doogan 1992 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Duboff 1993 | Wrong study design (long‐term follow‐up study) |
| Durgam 2019 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Fava 1994 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Fava 1998 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Fava 2002 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Ferguson 2007 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Georgotas 1989 | Not all participants met the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (23 to 25 weeks of antidepressant treatment (< 6 months)) |
| GlaxoSmithKline 1994 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| GlaxoSmithKline 1999 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Glen 1984 | Wrong study design |
| Godfrin 2010 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressant treatment (participants without antidepressant treatment) |
| Goodwin 2009 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Goodwin 2013 | Wrong study design |
| Gorwood 2007 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Harrison 1986 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Hochstrasser 2001 | Not all participants met the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (6 to 9 weeks of acute treatment and 16 weeks of continuation treatment < 6 months) |
| Kamijima 2005 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Kamijima 2006 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Klerman 1974 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Lepine 2004 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Licht 2013 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Liebowitz 1999 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Liebowitz 2010 | Interventon was not discontinuation of antidepressants (quetiapine) |
| Lustman 2006 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Lyketsos 2011 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Markowitz 2000 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| McGrath 2006 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Michelson 1999 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Montgomery 1993 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Montgomery 1993a | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Montgomery 2005 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| NCT00878748 | Study withdrawn |
| OADIG 1993 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Rapoport 2010 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Reimherr 1998 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (randomisation after 12 or 14 weeks of open‐label treatment) |
| Reynolds 1992 | Study is not a controlled study |
| Reynolds 1999 | Not everyone met the criteria for long‐term antidepressant treatment (acute treatment mean 11.2 (SD 7.8) weeks; 16 weeks of continuation treatment) |
| Robinson 1991 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration 6 to 13 weeks of acute treatment and 16 weeks of continuation treatment < 6 months) |
| Rosenbaum 1998 | Not all participants met the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Rosenthal 2013 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Sackeim 2001 | Study is excluded due to patients having electroconvulsive treatment before randomisation |
| Schmidt 2002 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Shawyer 2012 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (participants without antidepressant treatment) |
| Shimazu 2011 | Intervention is not discontinuation of antidepressant treatment |
| Shimodera 2012 | Intervention is not discontinuation of antidepressant treatment |
| Stein 1996 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Stein 2012 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Stewart 1998 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Stocchi 2003 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Teasdale 2000 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (off antidepressant treatment) |
| Thase 2001 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Tint 2008 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Walker 2000 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Weissman 1976 | Wrong study design (follow‐up study) |
| Wentink 2019 | No comparator control intervention |
| Wetherell 2013 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
| Zajecka 1998 | Participants did not meet the criteria for long‐term antidepressants (duration < 6 months) |
RCT: randomised controlled trial. SD: standard deviation.