homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

Weekend


Subscriber content preview

September 3, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q.  Most of us have heard of the "placebo effect," where patients with health problems begin to feel better even though the fake "medicine" has no active ingredients. How about placebo's "evil twin," the "nocebo effect"?

    A.  Nocebo is Latin for "I will harm."  Here you expect a poor outcome and later you get one ("think sick, get sick"), even though there is no clear reason to explain this result, says Robert Ehrlich in "8 Preposterous Propositions."  One example is assembly-line hysteria, where a few workers fall sick with vague symptoms like headaches or nausea, and soon many start to feel ill. Another is case-studied patients who think they're being given an emetic — really it's sugar water — and 80 percent do vomit!


     
    . . .


    To read this story in full login or purchase a subscription.



    Previous columns:


    
    Email or user name:
    Password:
     
    Forgot password? Click here.