Charlotte Stoddart: Can a sugar pill make you feel better? What about the rituals surrounding a visit to the doctor? Can the care of a doctor or your trust in them reduce the amount of pain you feel?

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. ...

According to experts, the pain relief you feel from typical recovery methods may have more to do with psychology than ...

When you were a child and fell playing outside, a single bandage — a placebo of sorts — could take away the pain. The placebo effect has long been somewhat of a medical mystery. While researchers ...

In a fascinating discovery, scientists have pinpointed what happens in our brains when we're expecting pain relief but are given a placebo, unknowingly, instead. It not only confirms 'the placebo ...

With Chinese swimmers getting 200 drug tests over 10 days ahead of the Paris Olympics, all eyes are on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Anti-doping is being politicized and some important ...

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Researchers have used controlled groups in clinical trials to test the effectiveness of medical interventions or drugs against what is commonly referred to as the Placebo Effect. The placebo effect is ...

Have you ever taken phenylephrine for a stuffed-up nose and then felt better? If so, you might have been perplexed when Food and Drug Administration experts recently said that that the drug — which is ...

The placebo and nocebo effects highlight the impact that our beliefs and perceptions can have on our physical health. So, it ...

Catarina Craveiro, a biomedical research technician from Lisbon, had been hobbled by lower back pain from scoliosis since childhood, unable to do much physically and dependent on ibuprofen for relief.