Hey Don't Be So Down - Pessimism Can Harm Health
 (New York, Reuters Health, 6/13/02)

Dr. Gretchen A. Brenes of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC and colleagues assessed the pain, functioning and outlook of 480 arthritis patients who had knee pain. The researchers found that the pessimistic patients did not perform as many of the common activities, not because they were more physically incapacitated, but because they had convinced themselves that they could not function and this became a "self-fulfilling prophesy."