It was not the media's finest hour. When a study was released last week challenging the effectiveness of several popular anti-depressant drugs, some news outlets, particularly in the United Kingdom, responded with headlines blaring 'the drugs don't work' - even though the drugs often do work. Yes, the study showed that the drugs often performed no better than a placebo. But what many of the media missed was that the placebo effect can be remarkably strong in psychological and neurological disorders, especially in mild depression. Doctors scrambled to assure patients that they should not abandon treatment.
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