| SUBJECT | A placebo can yield a clinical response that is indistinguishable from that seen with active antidepressant treatment, Emory University psychiatry professor Helen S. Mayberg and colleagues report [Am. J. Psychiatry, 159, 728 (2002)]. Inside the brain, however, the responses diverge. Mayberg's team found that patients treated with placebo or with Prozac (fluoxetine hydrochloride) showed a metabolic increase in the cortical region and a decrease in the limbic-paralimbic region. But patients given Prozac also showed brain-stem increases along with a drop in hippocampal and striatal metabolism, which "may convey additional advantage in maintaining long-term clinical response and in relapse prevention." The magnitude of change also was greater for Prozac recipients |
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