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Placebo

By Barbara Bradley Bolen, Ph.D., About.com

Updated: January 19, 2008

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Definition: A treatment with no active element. Due to human expectation, a placebo can often improve symptoms. A placebo is used during a research study to separate out the true effects of the medication or form of treatment from the subject’s expectation of improvement. A placebo effect is the symptom improvement that occurs in subjects who received the placebo.

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