• Andrew L Geers, Shane Close, Fawn C Caplandies, and Lene Vase.
• Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.
• Ann Behav Med. 2019 Oct 7; 53 (11): 999-1008.

BackgroundProviding treatment side effect information can increase the occurrence of side effects through nocebo effects. Nocebo effects from side effect information raise a dilemma for health care, as there is an ethical obligation to disclose potential unpleasant treatment information to patients.PurposeTo test the hypothesis that a positive mood induction can block the development of nocebo effects that result from treatment side effect information.MethodsIn a laboratory setting, healthy participants were assigned to one of four conditions in a between-subjects randomized factorial trial. First, participants took part in a mood induction procedure, with half receiving a positive mood induction and the other half a neutral mood induction. Next, participants were told they would experience transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Prior to a sham tDCS task, half of the participants were informed that headache pain is a side effect of tDCS, whereas the other half were not given this information.ResultsIn the neutral mood condition, the provision of headache side effect information lead to a greater occurrence of headaches, more frequent headaches, and a higher maximum level of headache pain as compared to those given no side effect information. In the positive mood condition, a similar increase in headache pain did not manifest from the provision of side effect information.ConclusionsThis is the first experiment to find that a positive mood induction can block the formation of nocebo effects that arise from side effect information. Inducing positive moods may be an effective strategy for reducing nocebo effects in a variety of clinical settings.© Society of Behavioral Medicine 2019. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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