Editing Placebo (section)

==Definitions==
The definition of ''placebo'' has been debated.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Blease |first1=Charlotte |last2=Annoni |first2=Marco |date=2019-03-14 |title=Overcoming disagreement: a roadmap for placebo studies |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-019-9671-5 |journal=Biology & Philosophy |language=en |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=18 |doi=10.1007/s10539-019-9671-5 |s2cid=254281187 |issn=1572-8404}}</ref> One definition states that a [[Medical treatment|treatment]] process is a placebo when none of the characteristic treatment factors are effective (remedial or harmful) in the [[patient]] for a given [[disease]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Howick |first=Jeremy |date=2017 |title=The relativity of ‘placebos’: defending a modified version of Grünbaum’s definition |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-015-1001-0 |journal=Synthese}}</ref>

In a clinical trial, a ''placebo response'' is the measured response of subjects to a placebo; the ''placebo effect'' is the difference between that response and no treatment.<ref name=chaplin>{{cite journal |year=2006 | vauthors=Chaplin S |journal=Prescriber | volume=17 | issue=5 |title=The placebo response: an important part of treatment |doi=10.1002/psb.344 |pages=16–22 | s2cid=72626022 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The placebo response may include improvements due to natural healing, declines due to natural disease progression, the tendency for people who were temporarily feeling either better or worse than usual to return to their average situations ([[regression toward the mean]]), and errors in the clinical trial records, which can make it appear that a change has happened when nothing has changed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kaptchuk|first1=Ted J|last2=Hemond|first2=Christopher C|last3=Miller|first3=Franklin G|date=2020-07-20|title=Placebos in chronic pain: evidence, theory, ethics, and use in clinical practice|journal=BMJ|volume=370|language=en|pages=m1668|doi=10.1136/bmj.m1668|pmid=32690477|s2cid=220633770|issn=1756-1833|doi-access=free}}</ref> It is also part of the recorded response to any active medical intervention.<ref name=eccles>{{cite journal | vauthors = Eccles R | title = The powerful placebo in cough studies? | journal = Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics | volume = 15 | issue = 3 | pages = 303–308 | year = 2002 | pmid = 12099783 | doi = 10.1006/pupt.2002.0364 }}</ref>

Measurable placebo effects may be either ''objective'' (e.g. lowered [[blood pressure]]) or ''subjective'' (e.g. a lowered perception of pain).<ref name="aspmn">{{cite journal |last1=Ashar |first1=Yoni K. |last2=Chang |first2=Luke J. |last3=Wager |first3=Tor D. |year=2017 |title=Brain Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect: An Affective Appraisal Account |journal=Annual Review of Clinical Psychology |type= |volume= 13|issue= |pages= 73–98|doi=10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093015 |pmid=28375723|doi-access=free }}</ref>