If a placebo works as well as the trial treatment then you can conclude the trial treatment is ineffective. You can't conclude anything about the placebo. The d

If a placebo works as well as the trial treatment then you can conclude the trial treatment is ineffective. You can't conclude anything about the placebo. The definition of a placebo is a substance or treatment with no medical action. Well you could also conclude that you picked the wrong placebo since perhaps it's not an ineffective substance or treatment. This is the issue with acupuncture studies - turns out placebo treatments actually have an effect so you can't use the results of those studies in any substantive way. This autism could be working the same way - just the fact that someone is caring about your child can cause a ripple effect that improves the child's behavior or influences the parents and/or evaluators evaluation of the child's behavior.