Editing Placebo (section)

=== Depression ===
In 2008, a [[meta-analysis]] led by psychologist [[Irving Kirsch]], analyzing data from the [[Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA), concluded that 82% of the response to antidepressants was accounted for by placebos.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Kirsch I, Deacon BJ, Huedo-Medina TB, Scoboria A, Moore TJ, Johnson BT | title = Initial severity and antidepressant benefits: a meta-analysis of data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration | journal = PLOS Medicine | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | pages = e45 | date = February 2008 | pmid = 18303940 | pmc = 2253608 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045 | doi-access = free }}</ref> However, other authors expressed doubts about the used methods and the interpretation of the results, especially the use of 0.5 as the cut-off point for the [[effect size]].<ref name="TurnerRosenthal2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Turner EH, Rosenthal R | title = Efficacy of antidepressants | journal = BMJ | volume = 336 | issue = 7643 | pages = 516–7 | date = March 2008 | pmid = 18319297 | pmc = 2265347 | doi = 10.1136/bmj.39510.531597.80 }}</ref> A complete reanalysis and recalculation based on the same FDA data found that the Kirsch study had "important flaws in the calculations".<ref name="FountoulakisMöller2010" /> The authors concluded that although a large percentage of the placebo response was due to expectancy, this was not true for the active drug.<ref name="FountoulakisMöller2010" /> Besides confirming drug effectiveness, they found that the drug effect was not related to depression severity.<ref name="FountoulakisMöller2010">{{cite journal | vauthors = Fountoulakis KN, Möller HJ | title = Efficacy of antidepressants: a re-analysis and re-interpretation of the Kirsch data | journal = The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology | volume = 14 | issue = 3 | pages = 405–12 | date = April 2011 | pmid = 20800012 | doi = 10.1017/S1461145710000957 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Another meta-analysis found that 79% of depressed patients receiving placebo remained well (for 12 weeks after an initial 6–8 weeks of successful therapy) compared to 93% of those receiving antidepressants. In the continuation phase however, patients on placebo relapsed significantly more often than patients on antidepressants.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Khan A, Redding N, Brown WA | title = The persistence of the placebo response in antidepressant clinical trials | journal = Journal of Psychiatric Research | volume = 42 | issue = 10 | pages = 791–6 | date = August 2008 | pmid = 18036616 | doi = 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2007.10.004 }}</ref>