1. Indeed, there were serious trials before those were made available and prescribed. Those trials have to demonstrate that the medicine is better than placebo

1. Indeed, there were serious trials before those were made available and prescribed. Those trials have to demonstrate that the medicine is better than placebo effect. I personally don't like to hand-wave away those trials to "big pharma bought them". 2. Yes, I inadvertently forgot to take a pill one day and only realized the next day. Coincidentally I felt depressed that day. It could only be a coincidence but I'm firmly convinced it's not. I'm not going to try to replicate the experiment though (especially since doing it on purpose could induce a placebo effect). Edit: see answer, I'm probably wrong on that 2.