sugar pills
Inert therapeutic tablets
Sugar pills are placebo medications—tablets containing no active ingredients, used in clinical trials to test whether real drugs outperform the mere expectation of treatment.
The term extends to anything offered as a remedy that has no genuine therapeutic effect: The proposal was just a sugar pill to quiet critics.
Also called sugar tablets.
- placeboInactive therapeutic substitute
- harmlessCausing no injury
- dummiesLifelike human replicas
- real thingAuthentic original item
- substituteReplacement for another
inactive · lozenge · tablet · sham · quackery · mind-body connection · clinical trial · clinical research · simulation · control group · double-blind · blank · deception · white lies · mind over matter · nocebo effect · inert · dosages
- birth controloral contraceptives, NuvaRing, vaginal rings, hormone patches, Yasmin
sugar pillspharmaceuticals
Manufactured therapeutic substances
prescription medication · chemotherapy · antibiotics · controlled substances · evidence-based medicine
sugar, pill, sugars, sugared, sugaring, sugary, pills, pilled, pilling