A placebo is a substance or procedure which should have no therapeutic effect. A harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect."his Aunt Beatrice had been kept alive on sympathy and placebos for thirty years" a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs. a measure designed merely to calm or please someone. This is what we have been taught since childhood. That placebos are all in the mind. However, in...