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Research shows that if patients believe they are taking the real drug, they are more confident of improving and, so, improve even if they are actually on the placebo. Conversely, if they suspect they are taking the placebo, their expectancy of improvement declines, and so does their improvement.

The big bulk of the response to antidepressants is the placebo response.

I think people are by-and-large happy with the providers that they have got now. They treasure that doctor-patient relationship.

Patients who trust their doctors and have a psychological expectation of getting better could trigger a reaction in their body.

I advocate for a totally new view of the role of the patient: patient as engaged partner, not passive recipient.

There is a major problem with reliance on placebos, like most vitamins and antioxidants. Everyone gets upset about Big Science, Big Pharma, but they love Big Placebo.

A placebo is a phony cure that works. This is very hard for the medical profession to get their teeth around because they hate placebos, but scientifically, placebos work in about 30% of cases that are psychogenic diseases.

I do a lot of research on the placebo effect, not just in depression but in irritable bowel syndrome, pain, arthritis of the knee, migraine, asthma.

It's so important to have a great relationship with your physician. It's one of those essential relationships that I find to be as important to nurture as any other relationship in your life. Without your health, you have nothing.

Increasingly we know that we're going to have multiple medical conditions, and the person who's got the greatest incentive to manage those conditions is the patient him or herself.