Open-Label Placebo for the Treatment of Depression

• Status: Unknown status
• Trial end date: 1969-12-31
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Open label placebo treatment has been tried for irritable bowel syndrome (Kaptchuk et al, 2010), where three weeks of open label placebo proved superior to a wait-listed control group. Another pilot study demonstrated efficacy in treating children suffering from ADHD with open label placebo treatment (Sandler & Bodfish, 2007). Recent work has shown that placebo openly given can have significant analgesic effects for acute migraines (Kam-Hansen et al, 2014) and for experimentally-induced pain (Schafer at al, 2015). A preliminary attempt to treat depression with open label placebo proved the feasibility of such a study, but was too small and brief for conclusive results (Kelley et al, 2012).

We provide here the protocol for a study to assess the effect of open label placebo treatment for depression.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Shalvata Mental Health Center

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

i. Major Depressive Episode according to DSM-V ii. Mild to Moderate depression (8>HAM-D-17 <24) iii. Receiving antidepressant medication with no change in medication in the last two weeks or not receiving antidepressants medication

Exclusion Criteria:

i. Psychotic depression ii. Agitated depression iii. Bipolar depression iv. Current suicidality or past suicide attempt v. Current drug or alcohol abuse vi. Psychotic disorder vii. Drug and/or alcohol abuse