Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been ranked among the top causes worldwide of years lived with disability. In this study we assessed meaningful change for the PHQ-9 and the SDS and determined the meaningful change threshold (MCT) using anchor-based methods, which could be used to compare meaningful differences in patients within different treatment arms.

TRANSFORM-1 (NCT02417064) and -2 (NCT0241858) were Phase 3 trials that evaluated the efficacy and safety of fixed and flexible doses of esketamine nasal spray (56 mg or 84 mg) in combination with newly initiated oral antidepressant (ESK+AD) vs oral antidepressant + placebo nasal spray (AD+PBO) in TRD patients. Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) were integrated into these trials to evaluate the patient perspective of treatment using instruments capturing concepts of importance to patients. The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a PRO instrument used to assess self-reported depression symptoms and the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) is a PRO for self-reported function and disability. Blinded trial data (combined treatment groups) from TRANSFORM-1 was used for the anchor-based analysis. The Clinical Global Impression - Severity (CGI-S) was used as an anchor and patients were classified into response groups depending on their level of change over the course of the study. Patients were classified among all possible change categories (15 levels, ranging from -7 to 7 where negative change scores indicate improvement). Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) curves of change from baseline to day 28 were generated using unblinded data from TRANSFORM-2 to visualize the range of responses demonstrated in the respective treatment groups for the PHQ-9 and SDS. MCT values were used to as thresholds to evaluate percentage of responders in each treatment group.

In anchor-based analyses using TRANSFORM-1 combined treatment groups, the correlation between change on the CGI-S and change on the PHQ-9 at Day 28 was high (> 0.60) with anchor-based MCTs ranging from 5 to 8 points. The magnitude of change (standardized effect size estimate within-subject change) for patients improving was exceptionally high (> 0.80). Similar results were observed on the SDS: high correlation of CGI-S and SDS at Day 28 (0.75), moderate SES (0.66), with suggested MCT ranging from 3 to 7 with an MCT value of 5 pts. CDF curves from TRANSFORM-2 showed clear separation between the ESK+AD vs AD+PBO across a number of responder definitions inclusive of those identified with the anchor-based analyses.

The current study is the first to derive an MCT on the PHQ-9 and SDS in TRD to measure meaningful change from the perspective of the patient using regulatory-preferred psychometric anchor-based methodology. These analyses assist with interpretation of meaningfulness of esketamine phase 3 clinical trial results from the patient perspective.

Study was funded by Janssen Global Services, LLC.