Historical milestones of the invention and use of placebo

Abstract

The review is based on the originals of nearly all major sources on the history of placebo and the placebo effect for 1945–2020. Data on the etymology and semantics of the term “placebo”, on its introduction into the Catholic service and, then, into everyday English are given. The placebo effect is considered as one of the mechanisms ensuring the “success” of ancient, medieval, old, non-traditional (alternative) and esoteric medicine. It is indicated that the origins of the experimental placebo are exorcism techniques dated from 16th century.Uniform understanding of priorities in the invention and use of both therapeutic and experimental placebo has not been established. In the first case, A. Sutherland (1763) and A. Duncan (1770) from Scotland, but not W. Cullen (1772), as is now given in most sources, should be named as pioneers. In the second case, the priority is given to the Commission of the Franch Academy of Sciences (with the participation of the US Ambassador to France B. Franklin), which investigated the effects of mesmerism (A. Mesmer) in 1784, but not to J. Haygarth's test of magnetism therapy in 1801, not to a comparison of the effects of homeopathy and allopathy in St. Petersburg in 1829–1830 and, moreover, not to the therapy of rheumatism studied by A. Flint in 1863. The last date is often erroneously given in manuals and reviews.From the beginning of placebo use and until the middle of the 20th century, it was considered as an active compound that could theoretically have a therapeutic effect, but since 1937 placebo has been defined in medical dictionaries only as an inactive, inert substance or effect. Data on the inclusion of the term “placebo” in general and medical dictionaries in different languages are presented (priority was given to the new medical dictionary by G. Motherby written in English and published in 1785).The increased interest in the history of placebo in the last one and a half to two decades (relevant reviews from at least 15 countries are known) might be associated not only with its introduction into controlled trials, but also with the current popularity of alternative and even esoteric medicine methods with the penetration of those, at times, into conventional medicine.