DOI: 10.36347/sajp

Pages: 354-355

Placebo is defined as any medication or procedure that produces an effect in patients resulting from its implicit or explicit intent and not from its specific physical or chemical properties. Positive placebo effects may include symptom reduction or improvements in physiological parameters and are believed to be due to mind body or interpersonal factors. In recent years the placebo effect has returned to the limelight. The reasons for this are complex, but they probably include the increased use of neuro imaging, the clinical improvement noted in the placebo groups in trails of anti depressants, and the growing public and research interest in alternative medicine. Placebos are paradoxical, able to be simultaneously the most tested intervention in randomised control trails and yet the least understood of all therapies. The most quoted treatment in medical science and yet notoriously elusive to definition. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the placebo effects are relevant and can be used as an effective part of many treatments by using communication targeting placebo effect mechanisms