SynthesisBritish journal of health psychology2025
Trait responsiveness to verbal suggestions predicts nocebo responding: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in British journal of health psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Trait responsiveness to verbal suggestions predicts nocebo responding: A meta-analysis.British journal of health psychology · 2025Pooled it
- The "Are You OK?" Paradox: A Scoping Review of Nocebo and Negative Suggestion in Healthcare Communication.Dentistry journal · 2026Review
- Efficacy of cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment for individuals living with symptoms associated with environmental factors (SAEF): protocol for a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Clinical neuroscience and neurobiology of placebo and nocebo effects.International review of neurobiology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNocebo responding involves the experience of adverse health outcomes in response to contextual cues. These deleterious responses impact numerous features of mental and physical health but are characterized by pronounced heterogeneity. Suggestion is widely recognized as a contributing factor to nocebo responding but the moderating role of trait responsiveness to verbal suggestions (suggestibility) in nocebo responding remains poorly understood.
objectiveWe conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis (PROSPERO registration number CRD42023425605) to quantitatively synthesize available research on the relationship between suggestibility and nocebo responding.
methodsFour electronic databases were searched for original studies involving both the assessment of suggestibility and symptom reports in response to an inactive stimulus.
resultsOf 7729 search results, 10 articles presenting 13 correlations between suggestibility and nocebo responding were analysed. A random-effects meta-analysis revealed a significant, albeit weak, positive correlation, r = .21 [95% CI: .04, .37], between suggestibility and nocebo responses, such that more highly suggestible individuals displayed larger responses. Sensitivity and meta-regression analyses demonstrated that studies of higher methodological quality, including those that maintained experimenter blinding, exhibited stronger effect sizes.
conclusionThese results corroborate proposals that trait responsiveness to verbal suggestions confers greater response to nocebos and warrants renewed attention to the role of suggestibility in symptom induction and perception.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.