The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating and well-studied phenomena in medicine. It’s a critical part of clinical trials, of some medical treatments, of research to learn how and why people respond to medications. When people are given something and told it will make them feel better, it often does. When they’re warned […]
Tag: medications
Victim of ‘Big Pharma’ or In Need of ‘Control’…Which Is It?
The use of medications in the management of mental illness is a suprisingly controversial topic. Many people seem to have opinions on the matter and they’re not shy about sharing them, whether they actually have any experience in the subject or knowledge about the issue. Of course, if we barred people from commenting when they […]
Health Care Realities: Samples
People often express a naive and rather touching belief that people who really need assistance with health care costs in the United States can get it, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Sure, there are high profile cases in the media now and then covering people who clearly need health care and are not getting […]
Environmental Issues: Drugs in the Water
I recently finished a course of liquid antibiotics and I was about to rinse out the medication container and drop it in the recycling when I realised that doing so would contribute to a serious environmental problem: Medical waste in the water, air, and soil. A number of studies in recent years have identified traces […]