The "Nocebo Effect" is described in the Wikipedia article by the name Nocebo and begins as follows:
"In medicine, a nocebo reaction or response refers to harmful, unpleasant, or undesirable effects a subject manifests after receiving an inert dummy drug or placebo. Nocebo responses are not chemically generated and are due only to the subject's pessimistic belief and expectation that the inert drug will produce negative consequences."
It has been through research using placebos to establish that such a negative reaction exists. The real clinical and ethical importance of such a concept is with regard to informed patient consent with regard to potential medicine side-effects or in presenting to the patient a full description of the complications of any form of treatment.
The Nocebo Effect as discussed in an article titled "To Tell the Truth: The Whole Truth, May Do Patient Harm: The Problem of the Nocebo Effect for Informed Consent written by Rebecca Erwin Wells and Ted J. Kaptchuk in the American Journal of Bioethics March 2012. The Abstract of the article follows:
The principle of informed consent obligates physicians to explain possible side effects when prescribing medications. This disclosure may itself induce adverse effects through expectancy mechanisms known as nocebo effects, contradicting the principle of nonmaleficence. Rigorous research suggests that providing patients with a detailed enumeration of every possible adverse event—especially subjective self-appraised symptoms—can actually increase side effects. Describing one version of what might happen (clinical “facts”) may actually create outcomes that are different from what would have happened without this information (another version of “facts”). This essay argues that the perceived tension between balancing informed consent with nonmaleficence might be resolved by recognizing that adverse effects have no clear black or white “truth.” This essay suggests a pragmatic approach for providers to minimize nocebo responses while still maintaining patient autonomy through “contextualized informed consent,” which takes into account possible side effects, the patient being treated, and the particular diagnosis involved.
How much of the "good news" of a drug or other treatment or disease prognosis and how much of the "bad news", that is, side-effects of the drug, complications of the surgery or other procedures or disease outcomes (in view of the documented "nocebo effect" ) would you want to know from your doctor?
For those who want to read more on the issue "Is It OK for the Doctors to Lie?" go to my earlier thread on the topic and take a quiz about lying if you were the doctor in various situations. ..Maurice.
Graphic: From the Wikipedia article.
