A growing body of research shows that treatments ranging from sugar pills to the “ritual of medicine” really do improve patient health. Doctors could start to harness the placebo’s power by making ...

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. ...

The "placebo effect" is a phenomenon that occurs when a person’s physical or mental health improves after taking what is essentially a sham treatment with no clear therapeutic benefits. (Getty Images) ...

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 ...

It’s well-established that placebo treatments, such as sugar pills, can prompt real reductions in symptoms for patients. But scientists have long struggled to understand exactly how the placebo effect ...

The placebo effect is getting stronger – but only in the United States. That’s the finding of new research that analyzed the results of 84 clinical drug trials from 1990 to 2013 for medications ...

For decades, research physicians have furrowed their brows at the mysterious powers of a treatment known in many medical circles as Obecalp. In clinical studies, Obecalp has been shown to have ...

The first real, physical proof of the placebo effect came in 1978. Running a study on patients who had recently had their wisdom teeth removed, researchers gave some of them a placebo. (The other ...

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 ...