Who is Placebo?
A placebo ( plə-SEE-boh) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials to test the efficacy of medical treatments, so they serve as epistemological tools to screen out the ‘noise’ of clinical research. Placebos in clinical trials should ideally be indistinguishable from so-called verum treatments under investigation, except for the latter’s particular hypothesized remedial factor(s). This is to prevent the recipient or others from knowing (with their consent) whether a treatment is active or inactive, as expectations about efficacy can influence results. Placebos are also popular because they can sometimes produce relief through psychological mechanisms (a phenomenon known as the "placebo effect"). They can affect how patients perceive their condition and encourage the body's chemical processes for rel...
