What is a placebo?

Send us a textWhat is a placebo? You may already be thinking something like: A placebo is an imitation, fake, sham, decoy, or trick treatment that we give to people in studies to see if the treatment under investigation is any better or worse. Placebos are supposed to be both benign and inert, meaning they should neither harm nor help a patient beyond the patient feeling or reporting that they are better or worse after they received some kind of treatment. It seems strange t...