Dictionary

nocebo en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /noʊˈsi.boʊ/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• nōsē′bō (General-American)
• nōsē′bō (Received-Pronunciation)
• /nəʊˈsiː.bəʊ/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nocēbō (“I will harm”), the first-person singular future active indicative form of noceō (“to harm”), by analogy with placebo. The word was coined by Walter P. Kennedy in an article entitled “The Nocebo Reaction” (1961). (see quotation).

Meanings

1. (also, attributive) A substance which a patient experiences as harmful due to a previous negative perception, but which is in fact pharmacologically (medicinally) inactive.
   • In the case of the nocebo, it is negative expectations that become self-fulfilling prophecies. 2009 April 25, Stuart Blackman, “Why health warnings can be bad”, in Financial Times:
   • It seems to be a "nocebo" effect – the self-diagnosed gluten sensitive patients expected to feel worse on the study diets, so they did. 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 02 Jul 2017:
   • 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. 1961 September, Walter P. Kennedy, “The Nocebo Reaction”, in Medical World, volume 95, London: Medical Practitioners' Union, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, page 203:
   • If there's one lesson to be drawn from the nocebo effect, it's that ideas are never merely ideas. […] Maybe you see where I'm going with this: our grim view of humanity is also a nocebo. 2020, Rutger Bregman, Humankind, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

Forms

Deriveds

nocebo effect

Relateds

drug · placebo

Translations (20)

cs nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · de Nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · pl nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · sv nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · ru ноцебо (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · no nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · it nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · gl nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · da nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · fi nosebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · uk ноцебо (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · sq nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · ko 노시보 (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · tr nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · vi nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · nl nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · es nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · id nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · mk ноцебо (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful) · pt nocebo (a pharmacologically inactive substance experienced as harmful)