The Placebo Effect

The word “placere” means to please from the Latin language for the word placebo (Carroll, 2002). The use of placebos has always been an interesting and controversial concept. The placebo effect is a mental relief of the patient than the actual effect on the disorder. This essay will describe what the placebo effect is, how it will be used to treat patients and the limitations of placebos.

Doctors or administrators believe that a placebo is a medication or treatment that is inert or innocuous, but for the patient it could be an effective remedy (Carroll, 2002). Placebos can be as simple as sugar pills or starch pills (Amaral et al., 2002). The placebo effect is the improvement of the patients' health after taking the placebo and not the actual medical drugs (Christensen, 2001). Carroll (2002) described that the placebo effect is psychological thus means that the patient believes they are going to get better and their bodies will start to heal. Carroll (2002) also stat...