Just an odd little question... the placebo effect is a real effect. Some people do get benefit from placebos (one of my favorite studies was comparing effectiveness of placebo pills of different shapes and colors).
However, the nocebo effect is also real. People don't talk about it much, but it works in much the same way (that is, we don't really understand it, but it appears to be a psychological effect that has some effect on health or how you feel), except you expect to feel worse so you do. Should people be responsible for nocebo effects if they induce them? What circumstances should affect that?
There are, of course stories based on invoking the nocebo effect without the actual term. Things like "cursing" someone and then they get so stressed about the curse that they mess something up or get sick or whatever.
If we don't give credit for inducing a placebo effect, should we give blame for inducing a nocebo effect? Or is the key issue the honesty involved? That it isn't whether or not the treatment works so much as that it isn't what it claims to be and/or doesn't work the way it claims to work.
What if someone can only access their placebo effect if they don't know that that is what they are doing? Does that affect whether it is ethical to lie to them if lying about why something works is the only thing that will give them some actual improvement?
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Date: 5/25/09 04:56 am (UTC)From:However, the nocebo effect is also real. People don't talk about it much, but it works in much the same way (that is, we don't really understand it, but it appears to be a psychological effect that has some effect on health or how you feel), except you expect to feel worse so you do. Should people be responsible for nocebo effects if they induce them? What circumstances should affect that?
There are, of course stories based on invoking the nocebo effect without the actual term. Things like "cursing" someone and then they get so stressed about the curse that they mess something up or get sick or whatever.
If we don't give credit for inducing a placebo effect, should we give blame for inducing a nocebo effect? Or is the key issue the honesty involved? That it isn't whether or not the treatment works so much as that it isn't what it claims to be and/or doesn't work the way it claims to work.
What if someone can only access their placebo effect if they don't know that that is what they are doing? Does that affect whether it is ethical to lie to them if lying about why something works is the only thing that will give them some actual improvement?