If doctors just spent more time with their patients so they felt more reassured, that might help.
The doctor-patient relationship is critical to the placebo effect.
The big bulk of the response to antidepressants is the placebo response.
I do a lot of research on the placebo effect, not just in depression but in irritable bowel syndrome, pain, arthritis of the knee, migraine, asthma.
One problem I have with drug companies is that they don't make all their data public.
Perhaps 10 percent of patients who are prescribed antidepressants are really benefiting from the drugs' active ingredients.
