text: what's a "placebo"?   something you can take to place of an actual medication...  example: the 4th week you take on your birth control pills is a placebo so that you stay in the routine of taking the pills but it is actually jsut a sugar pill...   and often in research studies someindividuals are given a real medication and others are given a placebo, this way the researchers can determine if the medication makes a difference on the persons health, but the individual doesn't know if they are actually on  the medication or taking the placebo..