The nocebo effect is when you experience negative feelings physically because you are told that might happen.
The nocebo effect – when expecting a drug to make you worse, genuinely does – has been seen before in medicine.
The nocebo effect is the opposite of the more familiar placebo effect, in which people feel better after being given a therapy, even if there is nothing in it.
The placebo effect is when something that has no medical properties 'works' because you expect it to, and the nocebo effect is when you experience negative feelings physically because you are told that might happen.
I personally prefer to err on the side of positive expectation! pic.twitter.com/oGW79Dhh1I— Dr Audrey Tang (@DrAudreyT) June 28, 2023
The statin ‘nice I effect’ study focused on 60 patients who had all come off statin drugs in the past due to severe side effects.
“The side effects are mainly caused by act of taking tablets, not what is in them,” Dr James Howard, one of the researchers told BBC News.
Symptoms were so bad that people had to stop taking the tablets on 71 occasions, including 31 times while they were just taking the dummy pill, during the course of the study.
“Our patients were really suffering, patients are not making it up,” Dr Howard said.
Whether it is nocebo effect or the chemicals in the statin themselves, the net result is some people find the drugs intolerable.
The reason statins produce a nocebo effect is unknown. The suspicion is they have achieved a self-fulfilling destiny with media reports and cardiologists warning of the side-effects of statins.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, the medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “These results undeniably show that statins are not responsible for many of the side effects attributed to them.
“Decades of evidence have proven that statins save lives and they should be the first port of call for individuals at high risk of heart attack and stroke.”
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