ALL IN YOUR HEAD:

Not only did the placebos induce a biological response, but those patients reacting most strongly to the placebos also reacted most strongly to the real drug. Placebo response predicted a good part of whether individuals would find the real treatment effective.

The study has several implications says an editorial in JAMA Psychiatry. First, it provides "additional rationale for the use of open-label placebo as a possible first-line treatment for depression." In other words, before handing someone some mind-altering drugs, give them the dummy version first. It will have some of the same impact, at least some of the time.

The research also shows that some of our reaction to drugs is in a sense self-induced. "Nested within the response to the antidepressant therapy, there is a substantial placebo response," the editorial says. Testing people with placebo first could allow clinicians to pre-screen responsiveness to actual drugs and then perhaps amplify the effects.

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