ANTICIPATING THE NEGATIVE—THE NOCEBO EFFECT Today I received an email from the Mayo Clinic promoting a new book: The Nocebo Effect -When Words Make You Sick.  I don’t plan on ordering the book, but I did want to find out what a nocebo effect is, never hearing of it before. Here are highlights from the Mayo Clinic blurb, Can 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...