nocebo
English
WOTD – 23 October 2017
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin nocēbō (“I will harm”), the first-person singular future active indicative form of noceō (“I harm”), by analogy with placebo. The word was coined by Walter P. Kennedy in a 1961 article entitled “The Nocebo Reaction” (see quotation).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nōsē′bō, IPA(key): /nəʊˈsiːbəʊ/
- (General American) enPR: nōsē′bō, IPA(key): /noʊˈsiboʊ/
- Hyphenation: no‧ce‧bo
Noun
nocebo (plural nocebos)
- (pharmacology, also attributive) A substance which a patient experiences as harmful due to a previous negative perception, but which is in fact pharmacologically (medicinally) inactive. [from 1961]
- 1961 September, Walter P. Kennedy, “The Nocebo Reaction”, in Medical World, volume 95, London: Medical Practitioners' Union, ISSN 0025-7621, OCLC 714999966, PMID 13752532, page 203:
- It is somewhat surprising that little attention has been drawn to the existence of the contrary effect [to the placebo] – which I may call the nocebo reaction.
- 2009 April 25, Stuart Blackman, “Why health warnings can be bad”, in Financial Times:
- In the case of the nocebo, it is negative expectations that become self-fulfilling prophecies.
- 2014 May 15, Jennifer Welsh, “Researchers who Provided Key Evidence for Gluten Sensitivity have now Thoroughly Shown that It Doesn’t Exist”, in Business Insider, archived from the original on 2 July 2017:
- It seems to be a "nocebo" effect – the self-diagnosed gluten sensitive patients expected to feel worse on the study diets, so they did.
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Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful due to previous negative perception
See also
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