Words cast spells: and why this matters in Parkinson’s
Words cast spells: and why this matters in Parkinson’s In this, the first of three blogs, Alison Williams explores the impact that quality of life assessments can have on Parkinson’s patients, the values informing those measurements, the words that are used, and how those words can invoke the ‘nocebo effect’ – what one colleague calls ‘the evil twin of the placebo effect’. Any medical treatment has two elements – the specific effect of the treatment itself (whether pharmacological or non-pharmacological), and the non-specific effect upon the patient of perceiving that they are undergoing treatment (Colloca & Benedetti 2005). Beneficial nonspecific effects are well [...]