placebo : Idioms & Phrases

noun a placebo used in experimental tests of a drug that has noticeable side effects
- an active placebo mimics the side effects of the experimental drug

noun any effect that seems to be a consequence of administering a placebo; the change is usually beneficial and is assumed result from the person's faith in the treatment or preconceptions about what the experimental drug was supposed to do; pharmacologists were the first to talk about placebo effects but now the idea has been generalized to many situations having nothing to do with drugs