Psychology Today | 29.07.2026 21:00
The placebo effect has been part of medical conversation since the late 1700s, when an English physician named Dr. Alexander Sutherland coined the term to describe a doctor with an especially reassuring bedside manner. Today, the concept plays a central role in how we test new drugs: to prove a medication actually works, researchers have to compare it against a "dummy" pill or injection—something inert, with no active ingredient. Neither the patient nor the doctor is told which one the patient is getting, a setup called a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. This precaution exists because up to 40% of patients feel real, measurable benefits from a completely inactive treatment, simply because they believe it's the real thing.
