Reply to More on Placebo Response

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

Sir: We are pleased that our article¹ on the placebo response in the escitalopram randomized controlled trials has generated some discussion.

Dr. Mattes’s first point is that there are fewer untreated depressed patients in the community than there used to be. Epidemiologic data certainly indicate that over the past decade or more, there has been an increase in treatment rate in patients with a mental disorder in the United States.²‘ ‹’ ‹