Placebo response in studies of major depression: variable, substantial, and growing.

By B. Walsh, S. Seidman, R. Sysko, Madelyn S. Gould. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 2002

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Influence of Tryptophan and Serotonin on Mood and Cognition with a Possible Role of the Gut-Brain Axis (2016, background): “However, antidepressants are only partly effective in the treatment of depression of moderate and greater severity in adults (response rates of approximately 48% compared with 30% for placebo) [19,20], suggesting that the monoamine hypothesis only partially explains depression [21,22].”
Evidence-based guidelines for treating depressive disorders with antidepressants: A revision of the 2008 British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines (2015, background): “A meta-analysis of waiting list controls in 19 studies of major depression found rating scale score decreases of 12–16% over 2–20 weeks and up to 20% of patients showed 50% or greater improvement (Posternak and Miller, 2001), which compares with 30–32% response rate on placebo (Melander et al., 2008”
Management of Depression in Older Adults: A Review (2017, background): “6 years.(33,37,38) The number needed to treat (NNT) for a response toantidepressants comparedwithplacebowas6.”
Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect (2005, background): “However, evidence of significant and increasing rates of placebo response in published antidepressant trials has justified their continued use (Khan et al., 2000; Andrews, 2001; Walsh et al., 2002).”