RE: Response to the eletter from Dr. Epling

Thank you for this important question. The focus of our paper was to examine the relative effects of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and combined treatments of depression in primary care. Our searches were indeed aimed at identifying studies on psychotherapy, but that included the most relevant comparisons (psychotherapy versus pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy versus combined treatment and pharmacotherapy versus combined treatment), because they all include a psychotherapy arm. You are right that we have not included trials comparing pharmacotherapy versus placebo, and this may have indeed had an influence on the overall outcomes, although we believe that this would not substantially change the main outcomes.