Below are a few highlights from Helen Pilcher’s fascinating article, “The Science of Voodoo: When Mind Attacks Body,” which was published on NewScientist magazine’s website on May 15, 2009.
The idea that believing you are ill can make you ill may seem far-fetched, yet rigorous trials have established beyond doubt that the converse is true – that the power of suggestion can improve health. This is the well-known placebo effect. Placebos cannot produce miracles, but they do produce measurable physical effects.
The placebo effect has an evil twin: the nocebo effect, in which dummy pills and negative expectations can produce harmful effects.
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Nocebo effects are also seen in normal medical practice. Around 60 per cent of patients undergoing chemotherapy start feeling sick before their treatment. “It can happen days before, or on the journey on the way in,” says clinical psychologist Guy Montgomery from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Sometimes the mere thought of treatment or the doctor’s voice is enough to make patients feel unwell. This “anticipatory nausea” may be partly due to conditioning – when patients subconsciously link some part of their experience with nausea – and partly due to expectation.
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This means doctors need to choose their words carefully so as to minimise negative expectations, says Montgomery. “It’s all about how you say it.”
Hypnosis might also help. “Hypnosis changes expectancies, which decreases anxiety and stress, which improves the outcome,” Montgomery says. “I think hypnosis could be applied to a wide variety of symptoms where expectancy plays a role.”
June 5, 2009 at 3:08 pm
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