Placebo: Encyclopedia II - Placebo - Early use of placebos

Placebo - Early use of placebos

Originally, the placebo was a substance that a well-meaning doctor would give to a patient, telling him that it was a powerful drug (e.g., a painkiller), when in fact it was nothing more than a sugar pill. Thus, Hooper's medical dictionary of 1811 says placebo is "an epithet given to any medicine adapted more to please than benefit the patient." The subsequent reduction of the patient's symptoms was attributed to the patient's belief in the drug.

Placebos may have a positive or negative clinical effect on subjects or patients. Most of these effects are assumed to be psychological in nature.

A treatment with the opposite result to a placebo, in which the medically inert intervention produces a worsening of symptoms is called a nocebo (Latin for "I will harm").

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early use of placebos", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki