Abstract

One of the most successful physicians I have ever known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of colored water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put together. It was certainly a pious fraud.Clinicians and other health-care practitioners have known for hundreds of years that different procedures with unclear mechanisms of action or efficaciousness can still result in subjective improvement of clinical symptoms. Many scholars have attempted to define the placebo effect. This has resulted in the development of multiple frameworks and models that help explain and further explore placebo effects and responses. After providing some definitions and clarifications of terminology...