The word placere means to please from the Latin language for the word

placebo. A placebo is simply something given that will not have any direct affect on
the condition itself. Placebos can be as simple as sugar pills or starch pills. In some
cases, doctors may prescribe a vitamin. In other cases, doctors may actually prescribe
a low dose antibiotic when you are having a viral infection that is self limiting or as
time goes by our body will be able to heal itself. The antibiotic will not kill a virus, so
it's a placebo treatment in terms of treating the viral infection you have. But it will
tend to take the pressure off your immune system so you do feel better, and you feel
like the doctor took care of you.
The use of placebos has always been an interesting and controversial concept.
The placebo effect is a mental relief of the patient which improve the patients health
after taking the placebo and not the actual medical drugs. The placebo effect can be
viewed in a different way, it can be used to observe two sets of controlled groups for
clinical trials and can also be used for medical practice.
Placebos can be used in clinical studies or trials where there are two controlled
groups, the first group is being administered by a placebo which all of the person in
the group doesnt know that they are receiving a placebo to treat them and the second
group is receiving the active or real medicine indicated to cure the underlying disease.
People in the first group must be assure that they dont know they are receiving a
placebo because when they know that they are consuming a fake medicine it will
ruin the clinical trials and will show a false result. The bigger the difference in the
results between the second and the first groups, the bigger the pharmacological
effectiveness of the studied substance is. A drug is considered to be beneficial only if
it can beat the placebo.

In medical practice placebo can be used to give a mental relief of a patient and
giving them a perception that they are going to get better and their bodies will start to
heal. Placebo may seem to be a dangerous way of medication but the fact is that when
a person beliefs and hopes about the treatment combined with their suggestibility may
have a significant biochemical effect. The healing action of specific therapeutic agents
can also be reinforced by the placebo effect because when the doctor is telling the
patient that they are going to be healed and creates a better bond between the patient
and the doctor.
Placebo can give positive results in many condition, but placebo effects occurs
better in some conditions than others. Studies has suggested that placebos work best
upon conditions such as pain, swelling, stomach ulcers, depression, and anxiety. It is
still a valid treatment, believe it or not. Placebos may trigger the release of the body's
own natural painkillers, the brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) known as endorphins.
Taking the placebo and expecting to feel better may relax the autonomic nervous
system and reduce the levels of stress chemicals, such as adrenaline. When you are
dealing with a sick person, you aren't just dealing with a disease. You are dealing with
the person who came in with the disease. So you treat the whole person. It didn't
directly do anything to fix "what" was wrong with you but it make you feel better at
the same time.
Although the placebo effect has proven to be effective, there is still much
controversy over eithics behind it. Critics of placebos maintain that deception is
wrong, regardless of whether the deceived patient experiences an end to their
symptoms. A good doctor-patient relationship with good communication is usually
preferable to the use of a placebo.

Conclusion

Theplacebo,astraditionallyused,couldbecalledtheliethatheals.Buta
satisfactoryunderstandingofthenatureoftheplaceboeffectshowsthatthe
healingcomesnotfromthelieitself,butratherfromtherelationshipbetween
healerandpatient,andthelatter'sowncapacityforselfhealingviasymbolic
andpsychologicalapproachesaswellasviabiologicalintervention.
Forsometimemedicalsciencehaslookedalmostexclusivelyattechnical
meansofdiagnosisandtreatment;thedoctorpatientrelationshipthatformsthe
settingfortheirapplicationhasbeennaivelyviewedasanoncontributory
backgroundfactor,relegatedtotheamorphousrealmofthe"artofmedicine,"
orsimplyignored.Inthissetting,theplaceboeffecthasinevitablybeenviewed
asanuisancevariable,interferingwithourabilitytoelicit"cleandata"from
clinicaltrials;anddeceptioninmedicinehasbeenseeneitherasan
unimportantsideissueorasatoleratedmeanstowardanotherend.But,asthe
doctorpatientrelationshipisrediscoveredasaworthy
Focusformedicalresearchandmedicaleducation,theplaceboefFect

assumescenterstageasoneapproachtoamoresophisticatedunderstanding
ofthisrelationship(73).Deceptionisavoided,asethicallyinappropriateand
asathreattothelongtermstabilityoftherelationship;andcliniciansturn
toalternative,nondeceptivewaystoelicitpositiveplaceboresponsesinall
patientencountersatthesametimethattheyapplythemostappropriate
medicaltechnology.