Enhancing Signal Detection in Major Depressive Disorder Clinical Trials

Placebo response remains one of the most significant challenges in major depressive disorder (MDD) clinical trials, often obscuring actual treatment effects and delaying the approval of promising new therapies. Despite its widespread recognition, the placebo effect remains poorly understood. It refers to a measurable improvement in a participant’s condition following an inactive treatment and is particularly impactful in psychiatric trials where clinician-administered outcomes are central to study success. The subjective nature of these assessments, combined with rater variability and participant expectations, makes MDD trials especially vulnerable to elevated placebo response rates and inconsistent outcome signal detection.

This webinar is designed to help attendees improve the quality, reliability and interpretability of clinician-rated outcomes in MDD trials. Participants will gain foundational knowledge of the placebo effect, its origins, mechanisms and relevance to current trial design, while exploring modern, evidence-based strategies to minimize its impact. Through a combination of expert guidance, real-world case examples and practical tools, the session will focus on strengthening rater performance, reducing data variability and improving trial signal detection.

Training Objectives:

• Explore methods to mitigate placebo response via rater-focused education and calibration, structured interview guides and specialized mitigation training
• Examine central monitoring approaches, including algorithmic and data-based review, and risk-based expert analysis
• Understand centralized rating and scoring models using trained clinicians
• Identify best practices for managing participant expectations
• Learn how eCOA design can prevent common rater errors before they impact data

Register for this webinar to learn practical signal detection approaches that reduce placebo response and improve clinician-rated outcomes in MDD clinical trials.