There’s a fascinating feature on the nocebo effect in this week’s New Scientist. Basically, nocebo is the opposite of placebo: it makes people unwell, or causes them pain, through the power of suggestion. The article tells the fascinating (and rather disturbing) tale of Sam Shoeman, who was diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer in the 1970s and given just months to live:
“Shoeman duly died in the allotted time frame - yet the autopsy revealed that his doctors had got it wrong. The tumour was tiny and had not spread.”
He died as a result of believing he was dying. How scary is that? Hypochondriacs, look away now.
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