background doctor-patient communication has far reaching influences on the overall well-being of the patients. words are powerful tools in the doctor’s armamentarium, having both healing as well as harming effects. doctors need to be conscious about the choice of their words. this study aimed to determine the frequency and pattern of nocebo phenomenon (np) un-intentionally induced by the commun...

Nocebo effects, i.e., adverse treatment effects which are induced by patients' expectations, are known to contribute to the experience of physical symptoms such as pain and itch. A better understanding of how to minimize nocebo responses might eventually contribute to enhanced treatment effects. However, little is known about how to reduce nocebo effects. In the current randomized controlled st...

Background: Nocebo effects, including nocebo hyperalgesia, are a common phenomenon in clinical routine with manifold negative consequences. Both explicit expectations and learning by conditioning are known to induce nocebo effects, but the specific role of conditioning remains unclear, because conditioning is rarely implemented independent of verbal suggestions. Further, although pain is a mult...

Negative expectations deriving from the clinical encounter can produce negative outcomes, known as nocebo effects. Specifically, research on the nocebo effect indicates that information disclosure about potential side effects can itself contribute to producing adverse effects. Neurobiological processes play a role in the nocebo effect, and this article provides a selective review of mechanistic...

The investigation of nocebo effects is evolving, and a few literature reviews have emerged, although so far without quantifying such effects. This meta-analysis investigated nocebo effects in pain. We searched the databases PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and the Cochrane Controlled Trial Register with the term "nocebo." Only studies that investigated nocebo effects as the effects that followed the adm...

Physical complaints, such as pain, can be effectively reduced by placebo effects through induction of positive expectations, or increased by nocebo effects through induction of negative expectations. In the present study, verbally induced nocebo and placebo effects on itch were experimentally investigated for the first time. In part 1, the role of verbal suggestions in inducing nocebo effects o...

OBJECTIVES The present review investigated whether there are systematic sex differences in the placebo and the nocebo effect. METHODS A literature search was conducted in multiple electronic databases. Studies were included if the study compared a group or condition where a placebo was administered to a natural history group or similar cohort. RESULTS Eighteen studies were identified - 12 o...

INTRODUCTION Nocebo-induced algesic responses occurring within clinical contexts present a challenge for health care practitioners working in the field of pain medicine. OBJECTIVES Following the recent research on algesic nocebo effects, the scope of this review is to develop ethically acceptable strategies to help avoid, or at least reduce, nocebo responses within clinical settings. METHOD...

Placebo and nocebo effects are known to play a key role in treatment effects in a wide variety of conditions. These effects have frequently been investigated with regard to pain and also in other physical sensations, but have hardly been investigated with regard to itch. In addition, neither in pain nor in any other physical sensation, the single and combined contribution of the expectancy mech...

BACKGROUND Psychological factors are known to significantly modulate itch in patients suffering from chronic itch. Itch is also highly susceptible to both placebo and nocebo (negative placebo) effects. Brain activity likely supports nocebo-induced itch, but is currently unknown. METHODS We collected functional MRI (fMRI) data from atopic dermatitis (AD) patients, in a within-subject design, a...