The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick

An investigation of the nocebo effect--the placebo effect's evil twin. "The nocebo effect" is a phenomenon best summarized as the occurrence of a harmful event that stems from consciously or subconsciously anticipating it. The most recent and massive demonstration of the nocebo effect was found with the claims of COVID vaccine side effects, where a significant portion of these side effects were not actually caused by the vaccine. Instead, they were the result of our negative expectations, the so-called nocebo effect. There are myriad other examples throughout history, and recent studies have documented the critical role of the nocebo effect in treatment side effects--such as with statins for high cholesterol, the higher incidence of complaints after negative media reports of certain medicines, and the mysterious illnesses associated with the Havana Syndrome, during which dozens of US government employees fell ill after reportedly being exposed to an unidentified sound wave. We are ju