Bill Harvey: And it all breaks down at the role reversal

Don’t be put off by the word – we all need to be aware of the importance of the ‘nocebo.’ When Lewis Carroll introduced the concept of the portmanteau word, I wonder if he could have anticipated the thick ‘smog’ of such words (Brexit, podcast, infotainment) in which we now gyre and gimble.

One such clunky construct was in the news this week. The term placebo describes an intervention with no active component but perceived to have one, such as a sugar pill believed to be a drug. It is well known that placebos elicit a response in many people and often this may be as strong as the response to the active drug. A ‘nocebo’ describes the opposite – a response that happens as a result of a perceived ill effect from an intervention even if not actually caused by the intervention.