- published: 04 Apr 2016
- views: 4740
A placebo ( /pləˈsiboʊ/; Latin placēbō, “I shall please” from placeō, “I please”) is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect.
In medical research, placebos are given as control treatments and depend on the use of measured deception. Common placebos include inert tablets, sham surgery, and other procedures based on false information. However, placebos can also have a surprisingly positive effect on a patient who knows that the given treatment is without any active drug, as compared with a control group who knowingly did not get a placebo.
In one common placebo procedure, however, a patient is given an inert pill, told that it may improve his/her condition, but not told that it is in fact inert. Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief may produce a subjective perception of a therapeutic effect, causing the patient to feel their condition has improved — or an actual improvement in their condition. This phenomenon is known as the placebo effect.
You dip your hands into my flesh
And say you won't reveal a scar
I must have faith in this procedure
It's a miracle-It's a wonder
A thousand hidden needles
In a thousand covered nerves
Stick pins in my receptacles
Look to your Voodoo doll-your mojo
Staying alive at five
For you to cure my ailments
Another soul is saved
With your bogus medications What colour shall we have today?
Depends on how you feel I say
Consult your research on the media
See blue will calm my hysteria
Staying alive at five
For you to cure my ailments
Another soul is saved
With your bogus medications
Staying alive at five
With your empty containers
Another corpse ornaments your waiting room
Will you ever regret-the placebo effect
Can you ever forget-the placebo effect