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  • Article

Rethinking the placebo effect

The placebo effect has long been harnessed for both legitimate and fraudulent use, but we’re only just discovering how and why our bodies respond positively to dummy drugs, as Anjuli Sharma reveals.

  • Article

Believe yourself better

There’s more to recovery than medication. In future, our unconscious minds could be recruited to put a positive spin on our health problems, helping us feel better faster.

  • Article

Lost in the mall and other false memories

How can you remember an event that never took place? Find out how manipulation, misinformation and coercion can plant false memories in your mind.

  • Article

Finding the words to talk about emptiness

Shored up by a diagnosis and medication, Cassie Doney tried to find out more about the profound feeling of emptiness they were experiencing. But research is thin on the ground.

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  • A discussion between a man and woman at a party (above) and a patient asking a doctor if it is necessary for him to have an operation (below). Process print after W. Lunt, 1913.
  • A woman giving birth aided by a surgeon who fumbles beneath a sheet to save the lady from embarassment. Wood engraving after a woodcut, 1711.
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