Disclaimer: This article is not intended as medical advice. Consult your physician before making any changes in medications or treatment.

What if the antidepressant that helped you feel better didn’t actually do the healing?

What if you did?

That question may sound provocative, but it has fascinated scientists for decades. Despite the billions of dollars spent each year on antidepressant drugs, a striking body of research suggests that much, and possibly all, of their benefit may come not from chemistry, but from expectation: the simple belief that the pill will help.1,2

That phenomenon has a name: the placebo effect.

For many people, this idea feels confusing or even unsettling. If your depression improved after taking an antidepressant—if you woke up with more energy, optimism, and motivation—doesn’t that prove the drug had a “real” effect? After all, nearly all of us know someone who recovered on medication and swears the improvement was genuine.

And they’re right. The effect was real.

The placebo effect has nothing to do with pretending or imagining that you feel better. It reflects the mind’s remarkable capacity to translate hope and meaning into genuine biological and emotional change. Brain imaging studies suggest that when people expect improvement, regions involved in

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