ABSTRACT
The placebo response is the beneficial effect of a treatment with a drug or other medicinal tool that is thought to not be specific to the drug but rather to “unspecific” circumstances of the treatment. The nocebo response is the worsening of symptoms due to these unspecific factors. In clinical trials of new compounds, these effects are controlled for to not overestimate the efficacy of the new drug; in clinical routine, placebo and nocebo responses occur with any treatment, but cannot easily be separated from the specific effects.
