Mobile Phone Headaches are Illusory
Exposure to mobile phone emissions does not cause headaches finds a Norwegian study. The study concludes that people who experience such symptoms do so because they expect that they will occur, the findings suggest. Dr. Gunnhild Oftedal and associates at the Norway University of Science and Technology in Trondheim recruited 17 subjects who "regularly experienced pain or discomfort in the head during or shortly after mobile phone calls lasting between 15 and 30 minutes."
The participants were subjected to multiple sessions with and without actual mobile phone emissions occuring - without knowing which session was which. Each session lasted 30 minutes, and 65 pairs of trials were conducted.
The medical journal Cephalalgia reports that the subjects said they felt an increase in pain or discomfort during 68 percent of all trials, even though only 50% of the tests would have had actual phone radiation being emited. Oftedal's team concludes that the most likely explanation for the headaches and discomfort reported by the subjects "is that the symptoms are due to negative expectations.""
Posted to the site on 27th May 2007