Nocebo Effect

In medicine, when we talk about the "nocebo effect," what we are referring to is the concept that adverse health or clinical events can be produced or influenced by negative expectations.

Sooner or later we'll see for ourselves what Penny Sarchet and countless others have uncovered -- that what we take in, what we believe, has a correlation to our health. The days of thinking that the body operates independent of our beliefs about it are fading away.

While some negative outcomes have nothing to do with patient expectations (adverse events are known risks with all treatments), the "nocebo effect" is especially pernicious because it can contaminate good care and is preventable.