The nocebo effect is a little-known concept that is used in medicine, psychology, and pharmacy. It could be defined as the opposite of the famous placebo effect. It consists of a person beginning to present the possible side effects that a treatment produces just because they believe they can occur.
The truth is that, at present, there are few studies that explain this mechanism. However, it is an important part to consider in any treatment. It shows that negative expectations of a therapy can cause adverse reactions.
For this reason, when establishing a treatment, or even when conducting clinical trials, it is essential to take into account both phenomena: the placebo and the nocebo effect. In this article we explain everything you need to know about the latter.
What is the nocebo effect?
When conducting a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a drug, most of the time two groups of people are used. One group receives the real drug, the other a placebo. Placebo is a substance without pharmacological properties, that is, without real effects.
This is done to see what the real consequences of the drug are. This process is done without the patient knowing what they are taking. Hence the so-called placebo effect: a patient begins to show benefits only because of the expectations he has of that treatment.
However, the opposite can also happen. Sometimes patients who are receiving the placebo begin to express the possible side effects of the treatment, even though they are not taking any active drugs. This is the nocebo effect.
In other words, the nocebo effect consists in that someone suffers the negative effects of a therapy only because of the expectations they had. These effects are not caused by any active ingredient, but are psychogenic. It means that they have been induced by the brain.
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