Does the placebo effect inflate the effectiveness of psychotherapy?

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Sarah Knowles reviews a recent meta-analysis about the effects of blinding on the outcomes of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for adult depression.

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Is the NICE guideline for bipolar disorder biased in favour of psychosocial interventions?

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Guy Goodwin reviews a new paper in the Lancet Psychiatry by Jauhar, McKenna and Laws, that calls into question the trustworthiness of the NICE bipolar disorder guidance.

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Antidepressants vs placebo for depression: forget the gap

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Ioana Cristea considers the possible causes responsible for the apparent narrowing of the drug-placebo gap, which over the last 30 years has seen estimates of depression symptom reduction from antidepressants fall from 70% to 30%.

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Placebo responding and µ-opioid brain functioning predict efficiency of antidepressants

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Dan-Mikael Ellingsen explores the neurochemistry of placebo effects in major depression, as he reviews a recent study of the association between placebo-activated neural systems and antidepressant responses.

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Placebo effect in psychiatry: what do we really know?

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David Steele summarises a review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which looks at the mediators and moderators of the placebo effect in psychiatry.

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Pharmacotherapy for PTSD: an update on the evidence finds some efficacy but small effect sizes

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Patrick Kennedy-Williams summarises a recent systematic review of pharmacotherapy for PTSD, which compares antidepressants with placebo for post-traumatic stress disorder. [Please note: this blog was amended on 7/5/15].

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Medication versus placebo for anorexia nervosa: antidepressants, antipsychotics and hormonal therapy

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In her debut blog, Nicola Coop summarises a recent meta-analysis looking at the use of antidepressants, antipsychotics and hormonal therapy for people with anorexia nervosa.

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Placebo for depression: are some sugar pills better than others?

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Joe Judge revels in a new network meta-analysis looking at placebo for depression published in BMC Medicine, which has been supplemented by a series of commentaries and blogs. Thought-provoking stuff!

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