The media are capable of altering our health. Evidence to this effect abounds. But how and why? Today, we are constantly informed, even inundated, with everything that is happening on the planet, and this is obviously not without consequences. Do the media, newspapers, the Internet, television, through the flow of catastrophic information that they broadcast, have the power to make us physically ill, not to mention the depression, insomnia, anxiety, in a word, the malaise that they can cause? In this book, Patrick Lemoine analyzes the emergence of a new phenomenon: the nocebo effect, the exact counterpoint to the beneficial placebo. What exactly is its mysterious impact? A critical and salutary reflection on our communication system, which will encourage us to protect ourselves and regain reasonable optimism. Patrick Lemoine, a doctor and psychiatrist specializing in the exploration and treatment of sleep disorders and depression, is the medical director of an international group of psychiatric clinics. He has notably published The Mystery of the Placebo.