Figure 5: Clinical Treatment Pathway.

^a Response: reduction of symptoms, ≥ 50% decrease from baseline depression scale scores.

^b Remission: free of depressive symptoms, assessed at a single time point; recovery: no symptoms sustained for > 8 weeks.

Note: fonts distinguish treatment outcomes that were included or not included in our analysis. Purple (italic) outcomes (e.g., response/partial response or no response to treatment or recurrence) were not included in our model; red (bold) outcomes were considered in our models for the reference case (i.e., remission/no remission/relapse) and scenario (i.e., recovery) analysis. Blue block arrows indicate phases of treatment (acute, continuation, and maintenance). Outline arrow from relapse in the continuation phase suggests that a medication change (boldface) needs to be evaluated again for treatment response (i.e., going back to the acute treatment phase). Outline arrow from remission to recovery or to recurrence suggests that remission in the maintenance phase could lead to full recovery or to another, entirely new, episode of depression (i.e., recurrence).