What Placebo is
A placebo is a medical treatment or procedure that has no active therapeutic effect on the condition being treated. It is typically used as a control in clinical trials to compare the effect of an experimental treatment against no treatment at all.
The term “placebo” is derived from the Latin phrase “I shall please,” and it has been used in medicine since the late 18th century.
Steps for Placebo:
-
Identify the condition being studied and the experimental treatment being tested.
-
Design a clinical trial to compare the effect of the experimental treatment against no treatment.
-
Create a placebo group of participants who will receive a sham or dummy treatment.
-
Administer the experimental treatment to one group and the placebo to another group.
-
Measure the effects of the treatment on both groups.
-
Analyze the data to compare the effect of the experimental treatment versus the placebo.
Examples
-
A pharmaceutical company may use a placebo in a clinical trial to compare the efficacy of a new drug against a control group.
-
A researcher may use a placebo in a psychological experiment to compare the effects of a treatment against a control group.
-
A doctor may prescribe a placebo to a patient to see if their symptoms improve without the use of a real medicine.