Does antidepressant treatment response depend on specific symptoms of depression? A multi-trial study

•There is heterogeneity in antidepressant treatment response between patients.•Antidepressants may act specifically on some depressive symptoms, and differences in symptom-level remission could explain treatment response heterogeneity.•In a pooled analysis of 19 clinical trials, we observed no coherent differences in the remission of specific depressive symptoms when comparing antidepressant vs placebo conditions among those with or without a treatment response.•Differences in symptom-level remission do not appear to explain treatment response heterogeneity.