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Article: Placebo's impact in brain surprises researchers studying depression.(The Dallas Morning News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- January 21, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Peering inside depressed people's heads, California scientists got a new glimpse of the power of a pill.
Actually, three pills: two types of antidepressant, plus a "dummy" pill, or placebo. The scientists wanted to know _ without having to wait weeks for patients to report that they're feeling better _ whether the effects of antidepressants could be detected quickly in the brain's electrical activity.
Yes, they could, the study found. Yet effects were also seen among patients who improved on the placebo, the scientists report this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
"We were just looking at the placebo group as a control group," says ...