Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A substance that has positive effects as a result of a patient's perception that it is beneficial rather than as a result of a causative ingredient.
- noun An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug.
- noun Something of no intrinsic remedial value that is used to appease or reassure another.
- noun Roman Catholic Church The service or office of vespers for the dead.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In the Roman Catholic Church, the vespers of the office for the dead.
- noun A medicine adapted rather to pacify than to benefit a patient.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (R. C. Ch.) The first antiphon of the vespers for the dead.
- noun (Med.) A prescription with no pharmacological activity given to a patient to humor or satisfy the desire for medical treatment.
- noun (Med.) a dose of a compound having no pharmacological activity given to a subject in a medical experiment as part of a control experiment in a test of the effectiveness of another, active pharmacological agent.
- noun to agree with one in his opinion; to be complaisant to.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an innocuous or inert medication; given as a pacifier or to the control group in experiments on the efficacy of a drug
- noun (Roman Catholic Church) vespers of the office for the dead
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term placebo: an inert medication or bogus treatment that is intended to control for expectancy effects.
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The pharmaceutical industry including some prominent researchers and supposed regulators continue to insist that testing new drugs against a placebo is the only way to get scientifically valid and meaningful results even though administration of placebos means some subjects get no treatment at all.
The Constant Greedy 2006
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PHILIPS: Well, I think there is what we call a placebo effect.
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But Scriba said doctors aren't obliged to actually use the word 'placebo.'
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And although doctors don't have to use the word "placebo," they should tell patients they are getting an unusual treatment.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Erin Anderssen 2011
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But Scriba said doctors aren't obliged to actually use the word 'placebo.'
The Seattle Times 2011
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Biases are present in placebo-controlled trials of both homoeopathy and conventional medicine.
Nightmare Advice on Allergies Steve Carper 2008
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If yesterday was about admitting and addressing the illness, today and tomorrow will hopefully be about prescribing a direction for recovery [not a short-term placebo].
Cameron Sinclair: Davos: Looking Beyond the Obvious to See the Future 2009
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In clinical trials, moodiness was more common among users of Ortho Tri Cyclen than in placebo users, but overall occurred in less than 10% of users.
Walmart offering $9 Birth Control Pills aka TBTAM 2007
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In the first instance, the word placebo comes to mind.
Archive 2009-06-01 TK 2009
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