I don’t understand how placebo could work with something so obviously psychoactive as ketamine. Are the depression treatment doses really small? I don’t think you could mistake placebo for the massive disassociation that comes with a K hole…

A placebo with special effects during administration. Still effective, just not how some people expected.

I think so much more research needs to be done on the placebo effect. It’s so strong in certain conditions, but not uniform. Like migraine and depression for instance it’s extremely strong in. When the people in this study who got placebo felt better, that’s a real physical change happening in their brain just like anything else in your brain. Understanding what exactly is happening, how the placebo effect results in improvement in different conditions could uncover new potential treatment pathways for many diseases, especially ones that respond strongly to the placebo effect.