Chemicals and Drugs

Placebos

Any dummy medication or treatment. Although placebos originally were medicinal preparations having no specific pharmacological activity against a targeted condition, the concept has been extended to include treatments or procedures, especially those administered to control groups in clinical trials in order to provide baseline measurements for the experimental protocol.

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

Any dummy medication or treatment. Although placebos originally were medicinal preparations having no specific pharmacological activity against a targeted condition, the concept has been extended to include treatments or procedures, especially those administered to control groups in clinical trials in order to provide baseline measurements for the experimental protocol.

MeSH Record

Classification

Related Concepts

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MeSH Record

See Also

MeSH Record

Synonyms

1 entry terms
  • Sham Treatment

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

18 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings administration & dosage, adverse effects, analysis, chemical synthesis, chemistry, classification, economics, history, isolation & purification, metabolism, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, poisoning, radiation effects, standards, supply & distribution, therapeutic use, toxicity.

MeSH Record

Indexing Annotation

usually NIM; do not index routinely for articles on CLINICAL TRIALS AS TOPIC; DOUBLE-BLIND METHOD; etc., unless particularly discussed; Manual 18.12.13

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Numbers

  1. D26.660w
  2. E02w.785w

MeSH Record

NLM Classification

WB 330

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Placebos. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D010919. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D010919
  2. Placebos. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo
  3. Placebos. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q269829