What is the placebo effect and what role does it play in the effectiveness of antidepressants?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points.
• The placebo effect is a positive response to a drug based only on the patient's expectation that it will work rather than on the physical effect of the drug.
• Considerable evidence shows that much of the effectiveness of antidepressants, especially for people who are only mildly depressed, is due to a placebo effect.
• Overall, only about half of all depressed patients respond positively to any given antidepressant medication, and of those, fewer than half are actually responding to the specific biological effects of the drug.
• A meta-analysis of more than 5,000 patients in 47 clinical trials revealed that the placebo effect was "exceptionally large," accounting for more than 80 percent of the alleviation of symptoms.
• Another line of evidence supports the argument that, for most people, the benefits of antidepressants are unrelated to their chemical action: Higher doses of the drugs do not produce greater reductions in depressive symptoms, only more side effects.
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