According to this article, the nocebo effect is pain in response to the expectation of injury, the converse of the placebo effect. Apparently (according to wikipedia and other web sources) "nocebo" isn't just a clever re-working of a familiar word, but means "I shall harm" in latin. And "placebo" means "I shall please." Dude, I'm getting my knowledge on!
HC thinks I have a very active nocebo response. I'm sure she's right.
Did I use "converse" correctly in that first paragraph? Probably not. I think the converse of the placebo effect (aleviation of pain in response to an inactive treatment) would be a treatment in response of aleviation of pain. The converse is the inversion in relation. The obverse is taking the opposite of two conditions. Maybe the obverse of the placebo effect (aleviation of pain in response to an inactive treatment) would be iatrogenic (doctor-caused) pain, an increase in pain in response to an active treatment. The contrapositive, is a combination of the two, an an active treatment in response to an increase in pain, or business as usual. Wikipedia describes nocebo as the reverse of the placebo. Seems altogether too simple.
Monday, May 15, 2006
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