1. In medicine, a prescription given to please a patient who, in the physician's opinion, needs no medication: The placebo is any false treatment; for example, in a controlled clinical trial, one group may be given a real antibacterial drug while another group is given a placebo that looks just like it in order to learn if the differences observed are due to the drug or to the power of mental suggestion.
2. Something of no inherent benefit that is done, or said, simply to placate or to reassure someone that he or she is getting proper treatment: A placebo is given for the positive psychological effect it may have because the patient believes that he or she is receiving real medical attention.
3. Etymology: from Latin placebo, "I shall please"; future indicative of placere, "to please".

The medical sense is first recorded in about 1785, "a medicine given more to please than to benefit the patient".

Editorial: "Patient, heal thyself"

• About the only medicine doctors from long ago could offer their patients was the reassurance that a medical treatment would work and it often was successful.
• It has become apparent that a patient's state of mind, awareness of his or her condition and expectations of the care she or he is about to receive can influence many outcomes of medicine from consultations with a doctor to clinical trials of a new drug.
• Apparently the usefulness of a drug, for example, depends on much more than the chemicals in a pill, and a deeper understanding of the result of a placebo can turn it into a valuable tool for reducing suffering.

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