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The placebo effect, sleep difficulty, and side effects: a balanced placebo model.
Nadine Neukirch1, Ben Colagiuri
1School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Journal of Behavioral Medicine
|August 15, 2014
Summary
Warnings about medical side effects can trigger those effects through the placebo effect. Participants warned about side effects were more likely to report them when receiving a placebo treatment.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Medical Ethics
- Clinical Research
Background:
- Medical treatments often include warnings about potential side effects.
- These warnings are crucial for informed consent but may inadvertently cause side effects through the nocebo effect, a negative placebo response.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether warnings about potential side effects can induce those side effects via the placebo effect.
- To examine the influence of side effect warnings on placebo treatment outcomes in individuals with sleep difficulties.
Main Methods:
- A 2x2 between-subjects design was employed with 91 undergraduates experiencing sleep difficulties.
- Participants were assigned to receive a warning about a specific side effect (appetite change) or no warning.
- They then received either a placebo hypnotic treatment or no treatment for one week.
Main Results:
- Placebo treatment significantly improved self-reported sleep quality, indicating a placebo effect.
- Actigraphy data showed no significant treatment effects on objective sleep measures.
- Participants who received a side effect warning were significantly more likely to report the warned-about side effect when given a placebo.
Conclusions:
- Side effect warnings can contribute to the occurrence of those side effects, particularly within a placebo context.
- This highlights the complex interplay between expectation, suggestion, and treatment outcomes in clinical practice.
- Clinical communication strategies may need refinement to mitigate potential nocebo effects from informed consent procedures.
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