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Related Concept Videos

The Placebo Effect01:54

The Placebo Effect

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The placebo effect occurs when people's expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation. In other words, simply expecting something to happen can actually make it happen.
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Blind Procedures02:07

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Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which...
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Antidepressant Drugs: Tricyclics, SSRIs, and SNRIs01:28

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Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs), including Desipramine (Norpramin), Imipramine (Tofranil), Clomipramine (Anafranil), and Amitriptyline (Elavil), inhibit serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake and also block other receptors. They are used for depression, pain conditions, and insomnia. Common adverse effects include anticholinergic effects, sedation, orthostatic hypotension, and weight gain. They have a narrow therapeutic window and so require plasma-level monitoring. Abrupt discontinuation can...
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Antidepressant Drugs: MAOIs and Other Agents01:23

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Atypical antidepressants, including bupropion (Wellbutrin), mirtazapine (Remeron), nefazodone (Serzone), trazodone (Desyrel), and vilazodone (Viibryd), offer unique mechanisms of action. Bupropion weakly inhibits dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake, aiding depression treatment and smoking cessation, with a low risk of sexual dysfunction. Mirtazapine enhances serotonin and norepinephrine neurotransmission, leading to sedation, increased appetite, and weight gain. As a result, it helps treat...
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Antidepressant Drugs: Overview01:25

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Antidepressant drugs are a class of medications primarily used for treating various mood disorders, including major depression, anxiety disorders, and other related conditions. These medicines work by modulating the neurotransmitter balance within the brain, alleviating depressive symptoms. Antidepressants can be broadly categorized into several groups according to their mechanism of action and chemical structure: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Serotonin-Norepinephrine...
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Blinding01:11

Blinding

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Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 23, 2026

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants
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Antidepressants and the Placebo Effect.

Irving Kirsch1

  • 1Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.

Zeitschrift Fur Psychologie
|October 4, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Most antidepressant benefits stem from the placebo effect, not serotonin levels. Evidence suggests popular antidepressants may increase future depression risk, challenging the chemical imbalance theory.

Keywords:
antidepressantsdepressioneffectivenessplaceboserotonin

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Clinical Psychology

Background:

  • The widely accepted serotonin hypothesis posits that depression results from low serotonin levels.
  • Antidepressants are prescribed assuming they correct this chemical imbalance, with their efficacy cited as evidence for the theory.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically evaluate the evidence supporting the serotonin theory of depression.
  • To examine the true therapeutic benefits of antidepressants beyond the placebo effect.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of published and unpublished clinical trial data for antidepressants.
  • Comparison of antidepressant effects on serotonin levels versus therapeutic outcomes.
  • Assessment of placebo effects and "blind" integrity in clinical trials.

Main Results:

  • Most antidepressant benefits are attributable to the placebo effect, with minimal statistical difference from placebos.
  • Antidepressants exhibit varied effects on serotonin levels (increase, decrease, or no change), yet show similar therapeutic benefits.
  • The integrity of blinding in clinical trials is frequently compromised, potentially inflating placebo effects.

Conclusions:

  • The serotonin theory of depression is largely unsupported by empirical evidence and may be incorrect.
  • Antidepressants may not effectively treat depression and could potentially induce long-term vulnerability to future depressive episodes.