The Nocebo Effect: Overdiagnosis and Its Costs

ISBN-13: 9781137523280 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 272 str.

Stewart Justman

Opis

The Nocebo Effect documents the transformation of normal conditions into medical problems and brings out the risks that flow from this inflationary practice. One notable risk is that people labeled as sick may find themselves living up to their label through the alchemy of the nocebo effect. The lingering effect of revoked diagnoses, the over-detection of lumps through breast self-examination, the occurrence in placebo groups of adverse events listed in consent forms, and the persistence of labeled as opposed to unlabeled symptoms-all illustrate the kind of signal distortion likely in a climate of overdiagnosis. As normal conditions are branded as medical issues, they acquire powerful, suggestive labels that readily come to life in our minds and bodies. This unique study considers the effects of diagnostic inflation on the diagnosed.

Recenzje

"The author has taken the subject of medicalisation to a whole new level by demonstrating how a distorted judgment and overzealous diagnosis ... the recognised coin of the realm-not only distorts the calculation of harms and benefits but negatively affects a patient's health and well-being through the power of suggestion. ... he has brilliantly demonstrated how the over-prescription of psychoactive drugs has taken place under the auspices of the DSM and distorted the calculation of risks and benefits." (John S. Haller, Jr., Medical History, Vol. 61 (1), 2017)

"The Nocebo Effect is both thought provoking and groundbreaking. ... The book is unique in surveying the extent and impact of medicalization of both physical and mental health. ... This work is essential reading for any practitioner supporting someone with a psychiatric diagnosis, and for those in third sector and policy-making bodies so they can legitimately assess the impact of their work." (Claire Powell and Jo Thompson, The Journal of Critical Psychology, Vol. 16 (1), 2016)

Spis treści

Please follow the table of contents in the published book.

O autorze

Stewart Justman is Professor and Director of the Liberal Studies program at the University of Montana, USA, and has written many books and articles on both medicine and literary history.  For Seeds of Mortality, a study of cancer, he received the 2004 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.