According to the published literature, the results of nearly all antidepressant trials were positive. In contrast, FDA analysis of trial data—including the unpublished studies—demonstrated that roughly half of the trials showed the drugs didn’t work after all. When all the data—published and unpublished—were combined, antidepressants failed to show a clinically significant advantage over placebo sugar pills.73 This finding suggests that the placebo effect explains the apparent clinical effectiveness of antidepressants. In other words, improvements in mood may be a result of the patient’s
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