[Current and future views from pharmaceutical industry perspectives on development of antidepressants].

It has recently become possible to conduct placebo-controlled clinical studies in Japan. However, worldwide, there has been much discussion of the problems in placebo-controlled studies, such as the fact that the increase in the placebo response in clinical studies in depression increases the risk of failed studies and the number of patients that need to be enrolled. Japan has been participating in more multinational studies aimed at obtaining simultaneous worldwide approval. This paper discusses an overview of the development of antidepressants and examples of research that has been conducted on the placebo response, and describes the controversy regarding the designs of future studies as well as the issues involved in Japanese participation in multinational studies.