{"id":2083,"date":"2021-08-10T20:13:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T19:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=2083"},"modified":"2021-08-10T20:21:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T19:21:14","password":"","slug":"placebo-effect-and-placebos","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/glossary2\/placebo-effect-and-placebos\/","title":{"rendered":"Placebo effect (and placebos)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>The placebo effect is the finding that often the simple psychological expectation that something will help reduces distress, improves function and even reduces  mortality in serious physical illnesses: even when the \u201csomething\u201d is inert.  Hence the term &#8220;placebo&#8221; has come to be attached to the practice of giving something known to have no effect on the condition of interest as a control arm in a controlled, comparative trial.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Details<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The term comes from the Latin, it means &#8220;I will please&#8221;.  A more general term is &#8220;expectancy effect&#8221; and there is a negative version of it: the finding that when people are given an inert tablet some experience &#8220;negative side effects&#8221; a higher rate than people having nothing at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite often even in pharmacological trials it can be difficult to conceal which tablet is which, for example, many traditional antidepressants cause a dry mouth for the majority of those who take a typical dose. This has led to use of &#8220;active placebos&#8221;: for example a tablet that causes a dry mouth but is thought not to have antidepressant properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Try also &#8230;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Nocebo<br>Blinding<br>Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)<br>Double Blind Controlled Trials (DBRCTs)<br>Hierarchy of evidence (and web of evidence)<br>NICE<br>Cochrane<br>ESTs (Empirically Supported Treatments)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Chapters<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Chapter 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The placebo effect is the finding that often the simple psychological expectation that something will help reduces distress, improves function and even reduces mortality in serious physical illnesses: even when the \u201csomething\u201d is inert. Hence the term &#8220;placebo&#8221; has come to be attached to the practice of giving something known to have no effect on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/glossary2\/placebo-effect-and-placebos\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Placebo effect (and placebos)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[18],"glossaries":[],"doc_tag":[],"knowledge_base":[],"class_list":["post-2083","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-om-book"],"year_month":"2026-04","word_count":203,"total_views":"1126","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"chris","author_nicename":"chris","author_url":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/author\/chris\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"All OM book glossary entries","term_url":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/glossary\/non-knowledgebase\/om-book\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"knowledge_base_info":[],"knowledge_base_slug":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/2083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2089,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/2083\/revisions\/2089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"glossaries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossaries?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"knowledge_base","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledge_base?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}