What is a placebo?July 10, 2018There is no consensus definition of a placebo or of the placebo effect. It is generally accepted that a placebo is an inert treatment with no direct physiologic effect on a patient’s disease or symptoms. Placebo effects, then, are effects associated with the administration of an inert treatment that are perceived as beneficial by the patient or that of observers.
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When is surgery a placebo?December 20, 2016Skeptics often claim that acupuncture is just a placebo.1-4 However, these individuals typically have neither closely examined the methodology for neuroanatomic overlap between verum and placebo “points,” which makes outcomes between groups similar, nor have they assessed the tissue-deforming effects of so-called “sham” needling because they simply assume that sham needles are inert. They aren’t.
