Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Placebos are commonly known as the inert drugs — think sugar pills — that researchers use to measure the effects of real drugs.

BOSTON – 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 ...

Many continue to worry about experiencing side effects from vaccines -- especially the COVID-19 vaccines -- but new data from a comprehensive meta-analysis suggests there is little to fear. The study ...

Are you a Harry Potter fan? If so, you might recall the following storyline from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry’s friend, Ronald Weasley, is an enthusiastic hobby sportsman with ...

In a survey of faculty members at three Chicago-area medical schools, nearly half said that they had used placebos to treat patients, a finding that may reflect a growing acceptance of placebos as a ...

Can you get the same energy boost without caffeine in your cup? The answer may surprise you.

Let's do a thought experiment. Round up 300 harried commuters with headaches—not hard to do on the New York subway any workday at rush hour. Of course, they are probably shouting and whining, which ...

There is a saying in medicine that goes double for psychiatry: "You shall not lie." So the question is: Is it possible to prescribe a placebo without lying? There are two kinds of placebo: a pure ...

Recently, a team of researchers set out to study the antidepressant effects of ketamine — and stumbled upon a medical phenomenon. The double-blind study at Stanford’s School of Medicine recruited ...