The placebo effect
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When a person uses any type of health treatment and sees an improvement in their symptoms, they may be experiencing the placebo effect. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the placebo effect when judging the effectiveness of a treatment, or when using one ourselves.
The placebo effect is about the power of the mind to influence the body.
It can occur when a person uses any kind of health treatment, either conventional or complementary and alternative.
It can affect all of us, whether we know about the placebo effect or not.
It’s important to be aware of the placebo effect when choosing complementary and alternative treatments. That is because if we choose a complementary or alternative treatment that does not work – and causes only a placebo effect – we may miss out on more effective treatments.
What is the placebo effect?
For hundreds of years, doctors have known that when a patient with a health condition expects their symptoms to improve, they often do improve.
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