Placebo is defined as a treatment type, which is used for its symbolic effect and believed to demonstrate no special efficacy for the state being used to treat from doctor's view, or an interference which aims to hasten medical treatment. However, patients who take placebo are not only given an ineffective medication but also provided support, solititude, and trust. The support and therapeutic alliance encourage favourable expectation. While response to nonspecific factors in every area of medicine is marked, it is more important in psychiatry. Placebo response is not predictable since it differs from disease to disease, individual to individual, culture to culture and over-and-above all it presents variability at different times and locations. There is still a need for placebo controlled studies to prove the efficacy of new medicines scientifically. Ethically, it is accepted that a placebo can only be used if there is no known effective treatment. Placebo should not be used in life threatening conditions. Hence researchers should take into account the balance between ethical and scientific concerns in evaluation of specific cases.

Placebo is defined as a treatment type, which is used for its symbolic effect and believed to demonstrate no special efficacy for the state being used to treat from doctor's view, or an interference which aims to hasten medical treatment. However, patients who take placebo are not only given an ineffective medication but also provided support, solititude, and trust. The support and therapeutic alliance encourage favourable expectation. While response to nonspecific factors in every area of medicine is marked, it is more important in psychiatry. Placebo response is not predictable since it differs from disease to disease, individual to individual, culture to culture and over-and-above all it presents variability at different times and locations. There is still a need for placebo controlled studies to prove the efficacy of new medicines scientifically. Ethically, it is accepted that a placebo can only be used if there is no known effective treatment. Placebo should not be used in life threatening conditions. Hence researchers should take into account the balance between ethical and scientific concerns in evaluation of specific cases.