• Nidhi Singh
• Aayushya Kumar Singh
• Ramya M.

Medical science has always worked towards curing mankind. In many of its aspects, it has proved that treating illness is so much more than what just meets the eye. It has always been successful in healing ailments which may be as small as the common cold to even those which require surgical treatments. Every time we pop a painkiller or open the bottle of a cough syrup, we tend to ignore the kind of ingredients and chemicals that have gone into making it. We don’t even know the mechanism through which it acts on the targeted organ. All we know is that the capsule or the cap full of syrup will cure our problem. Scientists have found out that the curing of a disease or an ailment does not only rely on the medication that we take, in fact, it is somewhat also dependent on the kind of mind set we have before or after taking the medication. Stating it in other words, as soon as we pop in an aspirin for a common headache, it immediately opens our body’s pharmacy to release certain chemical compounds like endorphins which serve as body’s own painkillers and tend to relieve pain to a great extent. In the same way, if a person pops a sugar pill which is analogical to an aspirin tablet without knowing about it, he might experience a relief from pain. This is considered as THE PLACEBO EFFECT. A placebo is a substance that looks or mimics the drug but is not the drug in actual, in other words, it is also known as FAKE DRUG or SHAM DRUG. Placebos were used in ancient civilizations to cure diseases and minor cuts and wounds that required immediate treatment. The Mexicans used army ants for stitching wounds and deep rooted cuts in order to prevent blood loss. A placebo could be any inert compound or solution such as sugar pills, saline solutions, gelatine capsules or sugar syrups that have no therapeutic values but are only used for mimicking the medicinal drug. Sham surgeries form an important control in clinical trials because they work as real surgeries without really having any therapeutic goals. Placebos can progress patient-reported complications such as pain and nausea. If used to treat conditions like insomnia and depression, placebos can cause patients to perceive that they are sleeping or feeling better. Placebos are believed to be capable of altering a person’s perception of pain as well and have always been an integral commodity of various clinical and pharmacological trials. However, there has always been a conflict regarding the actual effects of placebos on patients and the fact that they are recovering on their own despite the administration of the drug. This review article sheds light on the numerous research works that have been carried out by scientists and researchers across the world on placebos, their effects and their potential in curing ailments.

Placebo, illness, treatment, endorphins, mimic, sham surgery, inert.

"THE PLACEBO EFFECT : Paradox or Proven ? :A Review", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 6, page no.c22-c29, June-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2106274.pdf

"THE PLACEBO EFFECT : Paradox or Proven ? :A Review", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 6, page no. ppc22-c29, June-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2106274.pdf