> When the test results come back, they will tell Brown that, according to his patient’s DNA, she should do just as well on sugar pills as on any antidepressant

> When the test results come back, they will tell Brown that, according to his patient’s DNA, she should do just as well on sugar pills as on any antidepressant or anti-anxiety drug. Instead of prescribing psychiatric medications, he can send her home with a prescription that reads, simply: placebo. It's instructive to know that placebos don't work for cancer, but they do work for depression. When a placebo does as well as actual medicine to treat an ailment, it's time for some science to (a) find out whether the "real" medications actually work, and (b) find out what the ailment actually is. But that science hasn't been done -- as long as psychiatrists and psychologists are in charge of depression, a placebo will seem to be a suitable treatment.