When studying the effects of a drug that may elevate mood and relieve feelings of depression, it is important for these studies to be double-blind studies. In this type of studies, neither the test subject nor the researcher knows who was given the drug and who was given the control. The effect of this is that no one can be a victim of a placebo effect.
The placebo effect occurs when people respond to a drug or treatment in ways that cannot be attributed to the drug itself. Instead, this comes from the belief of the patient in the treatment.
