Placebo

:For alternative meanings, see Placebo (disambiguation)

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A placebo, from the Latin for "I will please", is a medical treatment (operation, therapy, chemical solution, pill, etc.), which is administered as if it were a therapy, but which has no therapeutic value other than the placebo effect.

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Experimentees typically use placebos in the context of a clinical trial, in which a "test" group of patients receive the therapy being tested, and a "control" group receives the placebo. It can then be determined if results from the "test" group exceed those due to the placebo effect. If they do, the therapy or pill given to the "test" group is assumed to have had an effect.

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Originally, the placebo was a substance that a well-meaning doctor would give to a patient, telling him that it was a powerful drug (i.e., a painkiller), when in fact it was nothing more than a sugar pill. The subsequent reduction of the patient's symptoms was attributed to the patient's belief in the drug. This is not how placebos are used today, as the rules that govern clinical trials now insist on full disclosure to subjects who take part. Today, a subject is told that they may receive the drug being tested or they may receive the placebo. This is not the same mental environment that produces the real placebo effect, (or even a nocebo effect, see below).

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Often during these clinical trials, placebos have a positive or negative clinical effect on subjects tested. Most of these effects are presumed to be psychological in nature but placebo effects can at times be predictable and measurable. A treatment like a placebo but which has a harmful result is called a nocebo (Latin for "I will harm").

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Latin: Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The ...

Medical treatment: REDIRECT Therapy...

Therapy: :"Therapy?" is also the name of a musical band....

Placebo related Images and Photos (experimental)

Placebo

Placebo - Purple Girl

Placebo - Purple Girl