NOCEBO
: a harmless substance that when taken by a patient is associated with harmful effects due to negative expectations or the psychological condition of the patient. Origin: Latin, I will be harmful; after placebo.
Last week, Penny Sarchet, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Sciences based at Lincoln College, University of Oxford, won the 2011 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize for an essay about the nocebo effect. Read her essay, published in The Guardian, here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/nov/13/nocebo-pain-wellcome-trust-prize?newsfeed=true