medications > Placebo effect
Placebo effect
   Placebo effect
   A placebo is any medical treatment that is inert (inactive), such as a
   sugar pill. Around one third of people who take placebos (believing
   is called the placebo effect.
   Placebo is Latin for 'I will please', and refers to any medical
   treatment that is inert. The placebo has long been used in research
   such as a drug. A placebo is indispensable to the conduct of many
   control group) takes the placebo. The placebo may be a sugar pill. None
   placebo. This phenomenon is known as 'the placebo effect'. Estimates
   vary, but around one third of people taking placebos for complaints
Types of placebos
   A placebo doesn't have to be a pill. It can be any inert or 'dummy'
   surgery. The placebo effect is triggered by the person's belief in the
   specific form the placebo takes.
   Some of the factors that influence the placebo effect include:
     * The characteristics of the placebo - if the pill looks genuine, the
       work, the chances of a placebo effect are higher. Some studies show
       that the placebo effect may still take place even if the person is
       care practitioner, they are more likely to believe that the placebo
How placebos work
   theories that attempt to explain the placebo effect include:
       without placebos or drugs, and the end of symptoms is merely
       of placebos may be coincidence, and not due to the placebos at all.
     * A change in behaviour - the placebo may increase a person's
     * Reduced anxiety - taking the placebo and expecting to feel better
     * Brain chemicals - placebos may trigger the release of the body's
       visualised scene. A placebo may help the brain to remember a time
The argument against placebos
   Placebos have the power to cause unwanted side effects. Nausea,
   reported as placebo effects. Critics of placebos maintain that
   placebos by an unscrupulous health care practitioner may also convince
   preferable to the use of a placebo.
The placebo effect is doubted by some
   Some researchers doubt the placebo effect even exists. For example,
   trials that involved placebos and declared that placebos offered about
   flawed, and that the placebo effect has been well documented for many
     * A placebo is any medical treatment that is inert, such as a sugar
     * Around one third of people who take placebos (believing them to be
       s/Placebo_effect?open">Placebo effect - Better Health
       A placebo is any medical treatment that is inert (inactive), such
       as a sugar pill. Around one third of people who take placebos
       symptoms. This is called the placebo effect.