So when your doctor tells you you won't get better. Ask him/her about the nocebo effect and the fact that their response is causing negative consequences. Or are they trying to make you mad enough for you to say to yourself, 'I'll prove that idiot is wrong and recover'. My doctor told me nothing so he was playing it safe.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=122428&CultureCode=en
Negative suggestion can induce symptoms of illness. Nocebo effects
are the adverse events that occur during sham treatment and/or as a
result of negative expectations. While the positive counterpart—the
placebo effect—has been intensively studied in recent years, the
scientific literature contains few studies on nocebo phenomena. In the
latest issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, Winfried
Häuser of the Technical University of Munich and his co-authors present
the underlying neurobiological mechanisms and highlight the relevance
of the nocebo effect in everyday clinical practice (Dtsch Arztebl Int
2012; 109(26) 459–65).
Nocebo responses can, for instance, be brought about by unintended
negative suggestion on the part of doctors or nurses, e.g., when
informing the patient about the possible complications of a proposed
treatment. It is also assumed that a certain proportion of the undesired
effects of drugs can be attributed to nocebo effects. The mechanisms
behind this phenomenon are—as with placebo effects—learning by Pavlovian
conditioning and reaction to induced expectations.
What are the consequences for clinical practice? Doctors find
themselves in an ethical dilemma between their obligation to tell the
patient about the possible side effects of a treatment and their duty to
minimize the risk of a medical intervention and thus to avoid
triggering nocebo effects. As one possible strategy to solve this
dilemma, Häuser et al. suggest emphasizing the tolerability of
therapeutic measures. Another option, with the patient’s permission,
would be to desist from discussing undesired effects during the patient
briefing.
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