The placebo effect is a measurable improvement in a person's symptoms following an inert or sham treatment, produced by psychological mechanisms such as expectation, conditioning and the therapeutic context of care rather than by any direct pharmacological action of the treatment itself. It has been documented across pain, mood and other subjective symptom measures, and its size varies with how strongly a treatment is expected to work. Anesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher's 1955 paper The Powerful Placebo is widely credited with establishing the effect's clinical significance and prompting its systematic study.
Facts
Core ClaimExpecting a treatment to work can itself produce a real, measurable improvement in symptoms, independent of the treatment's own pharmacological action. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Placebo
Wikimedia FoundationEtymology and definition section
A medicine or treatment intended to appear genuine to its recipient, but which has no pharmaceutical effect.
History section
The word placebo was used in a medicinal context in the late 18th century to describe a "commonplace method or medicine" and in 1811 it was defined as "any medicine adapted more to please than to benefit the patient."
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