All this may be true. But there is another explanation as well: alternative therapies are especially likely to benefit these people. With the possible exception of some of the botanicals, alternative therapies—certainly the wackier, biologically implausible ones—provide whatever benefit they do through the placebo effect. Major depressive disorder and panic disorder are highly placebo responsive and are, in fact, the mental disorders with the highest placebo response rates (30%–40% and 40%–50%, respectively). People with depression and panic disorder who turn to alternative therapies may do so because, for them, these therapies work.