Half the patients were given the medication and the other half received a sugar pill.
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The placebo effect refers to the improvements in symptoms that patients experience after they’re given an inert treatment like a sugar pill.—
Phil Starks,
The Conversation,
21 Apr. 2026 And a placebo comparison for UniQure’s gene therapy is far more complicated than giving someone a sugar pill.—
Bloomberg,
Oc Register,
5 Mar. 2026 The placebo may be an injectable saline solution, or water, or a sugar pill.—
Michael Hiltzik,
Los Angeles Times,
8 May 2025 Could a beneficial placebo effect be identified even when a patient was knowingly taking a sugar pill?—New Atlas,
22 Feb. 2025 However, in studies that compared SAM-e to a placebo (sugar pill), SAM-e wasn't found to be consistently beneficial.22
SAM-e is a relatively safe supplement.—
Ashley Wong,
Health,
2 Jan. 2025 In a cynical, despairing world, a sugar pill that calls itself a sugar pill might be the sweetest thing around.—
Tom Vanderbilt,
WIRED,
19 Dec. 2023 The process was similar to a clinical trial for a new drug, in which some patients are randomly assigned the new drug and others are assigned an older drug or a sugar pill.—Time,
18 Aug. 2023 In drug trials, a look-alike sugar pill and a test drug are randomly assigned to participants, but there’s no equivalent of a sugar pill for enrichment activities.—
Han Yu,
WSJ,
25 Feb. 2021