People have long understood that waiting for the disease can be as dangerous as the virus itself. In the past, voodoo shamans could harm their victims using only the power of persuasion. Likewise, ordinary people, especially alarmists and impressionable people, can experience very real symptoms due to thoughts of illness.
Nocebo effect
Nausea, dizziness, headache, and much more dire symptoms can be caused by the nocebo effect - the exact opposite of a placebo.
From Latin "placebo" means "I will like you", while "nocebo" means "I will harm". Nocebo is most often the reason why some homes are called "damned", why mobile phones cause headaches, and people living in the vicinity of wind farms complain of noise and ringing in their ears. Doctors are still unable to fully explain both effects. While placebo has been studied more often, its opposite is not easy to study, explain, and prevent.
Influence
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There are a lot of jokes among doctors about the deadly effect of nocebo. For example, in the 18th century, an incident occurred at the Vienna Medical School: students decided to play a trick on an assistant and promised to behead him. The unfortunate man was tied up, closed his eyes and laid on the scaffold. Instead of a guillotine, a cold, damp towel was sharply lowered around his neck. The assistant died on the spot, confident that the tip of the guillotine had touched his neck.
Despite the fact that there are more than enough stories like this, doctors, scientists and researchers prefer to focus their efforts on the study of placebo. Many trials today are split into two branches - some people are given drugs, others with inert tablets. Even those patients who take placebo show significant physical improvement, according to doctors, due to faith and confidence in the medicinal properties of the drug.
Linking the two effects
However, like any medal has a downside, inert pills can cause the nocebo effect. For example, patients taking glucose or other harmless inert drugs have exhibited side effects described by a physician. Somehow, negative expectation triggers the corresponding physiological responses. Pain and nausea can be not only phantom, but have very real, traceable causes. In the medical literature of the past ten years, the nocebo effect has been very clearly traced. For example, during the treatment of Parkinson's disease, 65% of patients who took inert drugs experienced side effects. Many of them were forced to refuse treatment due to quite tangible and dangerous reactions to placebo, caused by the expectation of a negative effect.
In the medical literature of the past ten years, the nocebo effect has been very clearly traced. For example, during the treatment of Parkinson's disease, 65% of patients who took inert drugs experienced side effects. Many of them were forced to refuse treatment due to quite tangible and dangerous reactions to placebo, caused by the expectation of a negative effect.
Syndromes and manifestations
More often than not, nocebo is the cause of subjective syndromes such as headache or nausea. However, sometimes the effect of negative expectation manifests itself in the form of itching or irritation of the skin, and changes can also be traced in the analyzes.
Another demonstration of the lethal effect of nocebo may be the story of a patient with depression. Suffering from emotional and psychological distress, he decided to commit suicide and drank all his pills. Changing his mind, he went to the ambulance, which found the patient in a dying state - high blood pressure, lack of oxygen in the lungs. The attending physician arrived at the scene and informed the patient that his antidepressants were just sugar-based inert tablets. Upon learning of the sugar overdose, the patient quickly recovered from the physiological shock.
Research
It is difficult to assume, in this case, the nocebo effect would be the cause of the patient's death, but many doctors admit this possibility. Dr. Fabrizio Benedetti of the Turin School of Medicine scanned the brains of patients who had undergone a "persuasion session" in the nocebo effect. It turns out that the anticipation of a negative reaction triggers the hypothalamus, the region of the brain that responds most rapidly to dangerous situations, and the adrenal glands. If the confidence and fear of negative consequences is strong enough, a cocktail of hormones secreted by the involved part of the brain and the adrenal glands may well cause death.
Spread
What is the main reason for the spread of "negative placebo"? The main means of its dissemination are, oddly enough, rumors and gossip. On the example of the following experiment conducted by Dr. Benedetti, you can see how dangerous rumors can be.
The doctor invited his students (over a hundred) to go hiking in the Alps. A few days before departure, Benedetti told one of the students about the side effect of altitude hypoxia (a disease that manifests itself in individual symptoms at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters). The doctor named one symptom - migraine. Within a few days and during the campaign itself, this information spread among the students, and everyone who heard about it began to experience severe headaches when they reached an altitude of 2500-3000 meters. In fact, altitude sickness manifests itself differently for everyone, for example, women tolerate it better, and the most common symptom is shortness of breath and increased fatigue.
According to the research and conclusions made by doctors, the clear connection between consciousness and physical condition should not be ignored. Over the years, medicine has consisted overwhelmingly of placebo effects such as conspiracies, casting out demons, and washing.
In other words, harmful thoughts about the impact of certain things, processes and technologies can be highly contagious and often lead to the realization of negative expectations. Just like positive thoughts and belief in the best can dramatically improve your health.