PLACEBO

placebo |pləˈsēbō| noun ( pl. -bos)

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 | [as adj. ]

placebo drugs. • a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs. • figurative a measure designed merely to calm or please someone.