placebo effect

noun

|Updated on: 22 Jul 2018

Definition of placebo effect

: improvement in the condition of a patient that occurs in response to treatment but cannot be considered due to the specific treatment used

Recent Examples of placebo effect from the Web

This is partly because using a lab is more practical than taking study participants outdoors, but also so participants will not know if they are grounded or not - to avoid a placebo effect.

— carrie dennett, chicagotribune.com, "Could walking barefoot on grass improve your health? Some science suggests it can.," 11 July 2018
Others, especially those specializing in integrative medicine, say there’s a lot more going on than mere placebo effect — and a new study published in Scientific Reports might go a long way toward explaining how that’s possible.

— katie heaney, The Cut, "Do We Finally Understand How Acupuncture Works?," 30 Mar. 2018
The trial, it should be said, was aided by a powerful placebo effect: Patients who received the placebo had a reduction of some 1.7 migraine days a month.

— katy schneider, The Cut, "Why Did It Take So Long to Figure Out Migraines?," 22 May 2018
The placebo effect can be incredibly powerful, performing nearly as well as carefully designed and tested drugs, substituting for actual surgeries and even generating side effects.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Training plus a placebo may make a drug more effective," 3 Apr. 2018
Muscle soreness and fatigue have the obvious limitation of being subject to placebo effects.

— alex hutchinson, Outside Online, "The Ultimate (Evidence-Based) Guide to Recovery," 9 May 2018
Now, some researchers in Germany have figured out a way to harness the placebo effect to increase the impact of a normal drug treatment.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Training plus a placebo may make a drug more effective," 3 Apr. 2018
This sounds like a placebo effect more than an actual pharmacological effect.

— kaiser health news, Washington Post, "Readers Seek Transparency On Surgery Centers, ‘Bill Of The Month’ Investigations," 28 Mar. 2018
This stuff, along with crystals and horoscopes, joins a long list of things that have never been proven to have much value beyond a placebo effect.

— barry ritholtz, chicagotribune.com, "A millionaire mindset never made anyone rich," 6 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'placebo effect.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.