Arch Dermatol. 1998 Nov; 134(11): 1422-5.

Alternative medicine. Is it all in your mind?

Tausk FA.

Department of Dermatology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md., USA. ftausk@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu

Therapeutic interventions may trigger nonspecific mechanisms whose effects are not attributable to the specific properties of a given treatment. Recent investigations on the placebo effect as well as other mind-body interactions are helping us to understand some of the underlying mechanisms, as well as beginning to provide us with potentially effective adjuvant treatment strategies for a variety of human diseases.