A placebo is often used in clinical trials to measure the effectiveness of a particular drug or treatment. If the drug is shown to be significantly more effective than the placebo, then the drug is generally accepted to work (Parella et al., 2012). There are two main problems described by the researchers. First, the placebo effect is highly dependent on a number of factors including: the person, the type of treatment, and the disorder. Second, the placebo effect has never been the focus of a study in children, and it is unwise to extend the findings in studies of adults because children and adults are incredibly different psychologically (Parella et al. 2012). So the question is: do placebo treatments help mental health symptoms in children
