Placebos and Medications

The St. John’s Wort study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examines the effectiveness of placebos to relieve depressive symptoms as compared with two other treatments for depression. In this carefully designed study, 340 depressed men and women were divided into three groups. One hundred and thirteen were given St. John’s Wort, 116 given placebos, and 111 given Zoloft, a well-known anti-depressant. After eight weeks of treatment, all three groups improved, with no statistical difference among them, as measured by the Hamilton Depression Scale.

Ed Welch in a research Review in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Fall 2002, pg. 77.