'Nocebo': The Power Of The Mind Can Make You Sick

Posting Date: 01/13/2000

I recently told you about a major study of a case of mass sociogenic illness (MSI) at a Tennessee high school. This is where one teacher thought she smelled toxic fumes and got sick and dozens of others also suddenly felt ill, causing the closure of the school.

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After a thorough investigation, health officials could find no reason for the illnesses other than that a media frenzy had caused even more people to go to the hospital. This is because a ?line of sight? form of mass hysteria occurred where people imagined they had symptoms.

This happens hundreds of times a year and it shows the power of the mind to make us sick. In lab experiments, researchers use placebos ? or fake pills ? to make sure they get accurate results when testing a product. A lot of times these placebos actually work in making people well, because the patients think it?s the real thing.

Well, the opposite of the placebo effect is called a "nocebo," which is the power of suggestion to make you sick. This is what occurs in MSI, and I have some examples of this phenomenon. One I?ve mentioned before are breast implants, where studies have absolutely proven no ill effects, yet thousands of women have filed suits against implant manufacturers after coming down with various symptoms that were headlined in the media.

The potency of the nocebo effect is illustrated in the case of a group of asthmatic patients who were told they were breathing a vapor that was an irritant to allergies. Nearly half the patients reported breathing difficulties, and a dozen had full-blown asthma attacks. They were then offered a medicine for "treating" the problem and recovered immediately. It turns out both the irritant and the cure were nothing more than saline ? salt water.

In other words, the patients? expectation that the vapor would make them sick is what made them sick, not the vapor itself ? the nocebo effect, according to an report on the phenomenon published in Hippocrates.