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Explaining all without causing unnecessary harm: Is there scope for positively framing medical risk information?
R K Webster1, J Weinman2, G J Rubin1
1Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College London, London, UK; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, King's College London, London, UK.
Abstract:
Clinicians in the United Kingdom are now legally obliged to tell patients about every risk involved in prescribed medical treatments. Although important for informed consent, warning patients of risks such as side-effects can increase the incidence of these very side-effects, through the nocebo effect. Positively framing risk information could be a potential solution to this dilemma, and preliminary data has shown it is effective in healthy volunteers receiving a sham drug. Future research is needed to test its effectiveness in a clinical population.
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