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> It produced a positive outcome which wasn’t placebo.

I just want to point out for understanding, that placebo effects are real effects; and even more surprisingly, they can work even if you know you are taking a placebo. It's completely legitimate to consider placebo effects part of the efficacy of a medication.

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My understanding (I used to say the same thing) is that this is now understood to be false, and that placebos don’t affect objective indicators, only self reported perception, and that perception reverts to the mean over time with the placebo.

many medical complaints have no objective measure, like "how much" pain or "enough sleep". And if a sleep aid or painkiller has a reliable immediate palliative effect, in addition to its longer term effect, that's part of "the cure".

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