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The placebo effect across psychiatric disorders is still not well understood. In the present study, we conducted meta-analyses including meta-regression, and machine learning analyses to investigate whether the power of placebo effect depends on the types of psychiatric disorders. We included 108 clinical trials (32,035 participants) investigating pharmacological intervention effects on major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). We developed measures based on clinical rating scales and Clinical Global Impression scores to compare placebo effects across these disorders. We performed meta-analysis including meta-regression using sample-size weighted bootstrapping techniques, and machine learning analysis to identify the disorder type included in a trial based on the placebo response. Consistently through multiple measures and analyses, we found differential placebo effects across the three disorders, and found lower placebo effect in SCZ compared to mood disorders. The differential placebo effects could also distinguish the condition involved in each trial between SCZ and mood disorders with machine learning. Our study indicates differential placebo effect across MDD, BD, and SCZ, which is important for future neurobiological studies of placebo effects across psychiatric disorders and may lead to potential therapeutic applications of placebo on disorders more responsive to placebo compared to other conditions.

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A side-stream process with anoxic/aerobic tanks was designed as a denitrifying enhanced biological phosphorus removal process for wastewater treatment as compared to a modified side-stream process using contact/stabilization tanks.

The high content of inorganic species in water used to extract bitumen from the Alberta oil sands and in the groundwater below the oil sands is an increasing environmental concern. These water matrices require treatment before they can be reused or safely discharged. Desalination of the oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) and groundwater, or basal depressurization water (BDW), can be accomplished with deionization techniques such as electrodialysis (ED). In order to achieve the effective ED treatment, OSPW and BDW were pretreated with coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation to remove solid species and turbidity. We demonstrated that a conductivity range for industrial reuse of OSPW and BDW can be achieved with the ED treatment and showed the possibility of applying ED in the oil sands industry. A continuous ED system that reuses the diluate stream as a source for the concentrate stream was designed. The cost of a hypothetical ED water treatment plant in Fort McMurray, Alberta, was estimated to be C$10.71 per cubic meter of treated water.