The Plato Effect vs the Placebo Control

You have to be very careful when you talk about the placebo effect versus the placebo control because they're not exactly the same thing. A placebo control is a particular thing that is a grab bag of all the miscellaneous stuff that could make your trial work properly. When you have a trial on people who are sick, the people who enroll in the trial by definition are sicker than usual. Even for themselves.