Medicine-related beliefs predict attribution of symptoms to a sham medicine: A prospective study.

It is hard to predict who is at risk of developing nocebo responses to medicines from demographic or personality characteristics. Context-specific factors such as beliefs about and trust in medicines, current symptoms and symptom expectations are more useful as predictors. More work is needed to investigate this in a patient sample. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Many patients report non-specific side effects to their medication which may arise through a nocebo effect. Whether some people are particularly predisposed to experience nocebo effects remains unclear. What does this study add? Demographic and personality characteristics are poor predictors of symptom attribution to a sham medicine. Instead, context-specific factors that concern people's beliefs surrounding medicines, their current symptoms, and symptom expectations are more useful as predictors of symptom attribution.