The nocebo effect is the opposite of the placebo effect. You hear about it rather rarely - but most probably definitely too rarely, because just like the latter can help, the nocebo effect is definitely harmful. Read what the nocebo effect is, find out who is most likely to suffer from this phenomenon, and check the importance of the nocebo effect in medicine.

Nocebo effect and placebo

The nocebo effectis the opposite of the more famous placebo effect. While the latter can be considered a positive phenomenon, the nocebo effect leads to deplorable results.

Nocebo effect: what is this?

The nocebo effect has been talked about since the 1960s - it was then, in 1961, that the term was introduced into the medical language by W alter Kennedy. The name of the nocebo effect comes from Latin and the translation means "I will hurt".

The fact that there are very significant connections between the state of human he alth and the psyche has been mentioned for a long time - it is said about, for example, in the context of neoplastic diseases, where it is pointed out that the prognosis is not only influenced by the degree of the advancement of the disease, but also the patient's faith in the chances of a cure.

It turns out, however, that most likely just as positive thinking helps, negative thinking simply hurts. The nocebo effect is based on this - for example, if a person believes that a substance he is taking will lead to side effects, the risk of such side effects simply increases.

The nocebo effect appears, inter alia, in due to a negative attitude towards a given form of therapy, the appearance of a drug that is not accepted by a person or a strong fear of the appearance of side effects of a given pharmaceutical.

Needless to say, nocebo seems to be quite an intriguing phenomenon, so more than one study has been carried out on this phenomenon. An example is the analysis carried out among students in the 1980s of the previous century - during which the participants of the study were informed that they would undergo therapy with the use of electric current, after which they may develop a headache.

After applying it, 2 out of 3 participants actuallyreported the above-mentioned pain, but in practice not a single person … was not exposed to electricity and the fact that some of them had a headache may have been due to the nocebo effect.

Nocebo effect: who is it with?

The nocebo effect can actually occur in any person who has a negative attitude towards the therapy or is very afraid of any potential side effects.

In practice, however, this phenomenon is encountered with an increased frequency among some people. It is noted that the nocebo effect is more common in women than in men.

It is not only gender that matters here - it turns out that people with depressive disorders or anxiety disorders are more predisposed to this kind of "psychologically conditioned" induction of symptoms.

Interestingly, it is also mentioned that the nocebo effect is more often faced by those people who … read carefully the drug leaflets. Such behavior should be rather praised - after all, by reading the leaflet, you can not take the drug that is contraindicated for us.

Some people, however, focus primarily on the side effects of a given pharmaceutical and it turns out that at least some of them may develop the nocebo effect, which may lead, among others, to to the fact that when they strongly believe that the preparation will cause diarrhea or a headache in them, it will indeed be so.

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Nocebo effect: where does it come from?

As we know quite a lot about the functioning of the human mind, we must be aware that there is still a lot to be discovered in this area.

The same applies to the nocebo effect - it is impossible to say why the belief either in the failure of the therapy or that the drug will cause unpleasant ailments leads to the fact that it does.

There are different hypotheses about the causes of the nocebo effect, as an example of one of them can be the one that focuses on stimulating the stress response in the body. With significant concerns regarding, for example, pharmacotherapy, the secretion of cortisol may increase in the body.

And then, when the levels of this hormone are significantly elevated, many different unpleasant symptoms may appear, which ultimately may be recognized, among others, for effectside effects of taking a drug (even if from a medical point of view, this preparation could not cause the patient's discomfort).

Nocebo effect: importance in medicine

The nocebo effect is mentioned in many contexts - it is even mentioned that deaths related to cursing someone or voodoo magic are related to its occurrence. However, the most important - unfortunately - the nocebo effect seems to be in medicine.

One of the extreme descriptions of its negative overtones is that of a man who received a very unsuccessful diagnosis: liver cancer with such an unsuccessful prognosis that, according to doctors' estimates, the patient had only a dozen or so days to live.

The medics' assumptions in this case came true and the patient died after a short time, but after his autopsy, it turned out that there was a (fatal) mistake, because the man did not suffer from any liver cancer. What led to his death? Probably the nocebo effect.

Nocebo in medicine is, unfortunately, not uncommon. As evidence, studies on penicillin allergy can be cited here - even every tenth patient who receives this drug reports such a problem.

However, when one study looked at this problem in more detail, it turned out that even as many as 97% of the respondents did not actually experience an allergic reaction, and they could have experienced the nocebo effect.

The described issue leads to many difficulties for medics. It may become impossible to give the patient the medications he needs - before using a new pharmaceutical, he should be informed about any possible side effects and after such information the patient can believe in their real occurrence so that they will actually appear.

Telling the patient about the fact that their prognosis is rather poor may in turn make them believe that their disease is incurable, which may adversely affect the effects of any applied treatment methods. So what to do - not tell patients at all about potential dangers?

Doing this is unlikely to be appropriate, so in general it is impossible to completely avoid the possibility of the nocebo effect. It is simply impossible to fight it one hundred percent, the only thing left to do is provide patients with various information with considerable caution and try to strengthen their positive thinking.

Category:

Psychology