What is a placebo?

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What is a placebo? You may already be thinking something like: A placebo is an imitation, fake, sham, decoy, or trick treatment that we give to people in studies to see if the treatment under investigation is any better or worse. Placebos are supposed to be both benign and inert, meaning they should neither harm nor help a patient beyond the patient feeling or reporting that they are better or worse after they received some kind of treatment. It seems strange that there is something that can take innumerable forms and still seems to work at least a little bit on so many different things. Placebos are like an all-powerful potion or magic spell. For some treatments, even active treatments, placebo effects account for the vast majority of the effect size and it is not just an illusion.

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