Few terms have been more misused and caused more confusion than placebo and the placebo effect. Placebo is most commonly defined as an inert substance such as a sugar pill or an injection of ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." [table-of-contents] stripped Lauren Quinn has had health-related anxiety for most of her life—and the ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

During World War II, battlefield nurses who ran out of painkillers sometimes used a trick to help wounded soldiers in agony: injecting them with saltwater and telling them it was a potent dose of ...

Placebos are commonly known as the inert drugs — think sugar pills — that researchers use to measure the effects of real drugs. But research shows they can actually improve certain health conditions. ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about relationships, personality, and everyday psychology. Our mind wields a remarkable influence over our well-being. Its ...

The placebo effect is the well-known phenomenon of a person's physical or mental health improving after taking a treatment with no pharmacological therapeutic benefit – a sugar pill, or a syringe full ...

Drug side effects may not always be a bad thing, for painkillers at least. An inert nasal spray that was presented as having painkilling properties was deemed more effective when it caused a mild ...

Laura holds a Master's in Experimental Neuroscience and a Bachelor's in Biology from Imperial College London. Her areas of expertise include health, medicine, psychology, and neuroscience.View full ...

Over the past month or so, I have seen several advertisements for different modalities for pain relief. Seeing these advertisements, which featured devices such as TENS units and ultrasound machines, ...