Questionnaire Survey on Pharmacists’ Awareness of the Nocebo Effect
- VernacularTitle:薬剤師を対象としたノセボ効果の認知度に関するアンケート調査
- Author:
Minae ISAWA
1
;
Touko MAMIYA
1
;
Haruki ISHIKAWA
2
;
Yoshiko TOMINAGA
3
;
Mayumi MOCHIZUKI
1
;
Tohru AOMORI
4
Author Information
- Keywords: nocebo effect; questionnaire; awareness; pharmacists
- From:Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics 2025;27(2):66-73
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
- Abstract: Objective: The side effects of drug therapy are not only directly attributable to the drugs taken but may also be caused by psychological phenomena. One such phenomenon is the nocebo effect, wherein adverse effects are triggered by the patient’s recognition of symptoms. The patient’s development of side effects may be influenced by the pharmacist’s explanation of side effects, but it is not known how many pharmacists are actually aware of the nocebo effect. Therefore, this survey aimed to clarify pharmacists’ awareness of the nocebo effect and the extent to which they utilize their knowledge of this phenomenon when providing medication guidance, and to determine whether their awareness influences explaining of the side effects at medication guidance.Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted using Google Forms. After defining the nocebo effect, the respondents were asked what points they note when explaining side effects, whether they were aware of the nocebo effect, and in what types of patients they tend to be aware of it. Simple tabulations were performed for each item, and subgroup analyses were performed according to the level of awareness of the nocebo effect.Results: Of the 100 participants, 65did not know the term “nocebo effect”. However 82 provided medication guidance considering the nocebo effect phenomenon, and many pharmacists who were familiar with the nocebo effect responded that it should be taken into consideration when providing drug guidance. Side effects of particular concern related to the nocebo effect are subjective symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, anxiety and depression, and drowsiness and somnolence; patients with neurotic tendencies or high anxiety also require special attention.Conclusion: Although the term “nocebo effect” is not well known by pharmacists, the phenomenon itself is widely recognized. Many pharmacists reported that understanding the nocebo effect when explaining the side effects, therefore medications leads to improved therapeutic efficacy.
