The influence of treatment expectations on clinical outcomes and cortisol levels in patients with chronic neck pain: an experimental study

ConclusionsPhysical therapists treating people with chronic neck pain should be attentive when communicating the expected treatment effects to their patients. Whereas verbally ‐delivered positive or neutral expectations may be beneficial for pain‐related measures, giving negative expectations may result in a lack of a treatment response on pain. Cortisol levels increased in response to verbally‐delivered neutral and negative expectations, in absence of a nocebo effe ct. This questions the presumed role of cortisol in the nocebo effect.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Source: Pain Practice - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research