A placebo is a treatment that appears real but has no therapeutic benefit. It can be a sugar pill, a saline injection, or even a fake surgical procedure. The placebo effect is when a persons physical or mental health appears to improve after taking a placebo. The response can be positive or negative, and it is triggered by the persons belief in the benefit from the treatment and their expectation of feeling better, rather than the characteristics of the placebo. The placebo effect is a beneficial health outcome resulting from a persons anticipation that an intervention will help. Placebos are often used in clinical trials to test the effectiveness of treatments. They are used as a control treatment, enabling researchers to determine the specific effects of a treatment. The placebo effect is a fascinating phenomenon that occurs when a sham medical intervention causes improvement in a patients condition because of the factors associated with the patient’s perception of the intervention.