Here's a summary:

the "nocebo effect" - the flip-side to the better-known placebo effect. While an inert sugar pill (placebo) can make you feel better, warnings of fictional side-effects (nocebo) can make you feel those too... This poses an ethical quandary: should doctors warn patients about side-effects if doing so makes them more likely to arise?

Examples given include- A man died shortly after being told he had cancer, even though autopsy showed the cancer hadn't grown, and didn't show any other reason for his death. Another example is mass... (read more)