Neurobiological Underpinnings of Placebo Response in Depression

In summary, the proposed research is novel with respect to design, technology, and its multi-level integration probing psychological and neurobiological constructs assumed to be crucially implicated in placebo response and has significant clinical and research implications for the future. Specifically, the future implications include: 1) identification of biomarkers and biosignatures of placebo responders, 2) new possibilities to understanding and manipulating the system, 3) possibly decreasing or eliminating a major confounder in clinical trials and drug development, and 4) refining treatments with novel drugs that decrease (in clinical trial) or increase (in clinical practice) the placebo response.