Abstract
In Latin, placebo translates to “I shall please” and was used in the eighth century as part of a psalm sung at funerals. The term was initially used in medicine in the late eighteenth century to indicate a commonplace method or medicine. By the early nineteenth century, it was used to refer to any medicine adapted more to please than to benefit the patient. Modern usage typically refers to a drug or therapy that simulates medical treatment, but has no specific action on the condition being treated. It is important to note, however, that placebo can also refer to the response experienced by the patient and not only the word for a seemingly inert stimulus. Beecher quantified the placebo effect at 35% based on 15 uncontrolled observational studies. While later studies have estimated this number as both higher and lower, the Beecher placebo effect size is the most commonly cited number.
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Palaia, T., Curatolo, C., Serban, S. (2019). Placebo and Pain. In: Khelemsky, Y., Malhotra, A., Gritsenko, K. (eds) Academic Pain Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18005-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18005-8_8
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