Placebo

A placebo is a fake or inactive treatment—like a sugar pill or saline injection—that has no direct therapeutic effect but can still produce real improvements in how patients feel due to the power of their expectations and beliefs. This phenomenon, called the placebo effect, occurs because our minds can influence our bodies' pain perception, stress levels, and even some physical symptoms when we genuinely believe we're receiving treatment. Scientists use placebos in medical research to test whether new drugs actually work better than the patients' own expectations alone.