Excessive susceptibility of the southern peoples can cause increased symptoms of the disease.
an Additional factor influencing the level of mortality from COVID-19 may be a so-called nocebo effect, researchers found. Waiting something bad — in this case the symptoms leads to their appearance in reality. As the cultural and national peculiarities of perception of information is different, the effect is manifested in different countries varies. In particular, southerners tend to have more emotional reaction to disturbing reports about the disease. Caused by negative information shock can even hasten death in severely ill patients.
In medicine has long known the term “placebos” — when the patient’s health improves due belief in a particular treatment technique. However, has the opposite effect, called “nocebo”. It is reflected in the fact that people get stronger as a result of foreboding.
Director of the Oxford programme on the empathy Jeremy Howick and research fellow at the London school of Economics and political Sciences Giulio Ongaro suggested that test positive for COVID-19 one person with minor symptoms may exacerbate them. This happens due that the patient is upset and overreacting, being captured by an information wave, carrying lots of detail about the course of the disease, its dangers , etc. moreover, due to the negative information shock can even hasten death in severely ill patients.
According to the head of the psychological service of the Tomsk state University Azamat najmanova, a recent study has shown an increased level of anxiety and depression in patients with diagnosed COVID-19 and pneumonia of other origin in comparison with healthy people. Ill COVID-19 anxiety was higher in comparison with patients in the usual pneumonia. Thus, the nocebo effect is much more likely to occur in patients with COVID-19.
As found by a team of Chinese scientists from the first hospital of Ningbo University Zhejiang, among the causes of symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients COVID-19 there are several basic
However, as reported by the study authors, timely psychological intervention yields significant positive effect on the course of disease. Daily communication with patients, interest in their Affairs and problems, message them positive information and reinforcement of positive emotions significantly decreased the severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in a week.
the phenomenon of the nocebo explains on a physiological level, although aware of it, not so much.
— today nocebo effect has been insufficiently studied, but experimental��mentalnie studies show a correlation between the receipt of negative attitudes and increased levels of anxiety, — said Azamat Naiman. — Words and phrases that are negative in nature give rise to together with anxiety and bad expectations. In the end, at the biochemical level activates the cholecystokinin system, influencing the formation of the emotions of fear and anxiety.
As explained by the scientist, it counteracts the opioid and dopaminergic systems. Opioid peptides serve as endogenous analgesic and antistress factors, regulate body temperature, blood pressure, lung function, digestive system, endocrine glands, immune system. When you block the opioid system, these processes are violated, resulting in deteriorating the symptoms of the disease. Blocking dopaminergic system leads to a decrease in the motivational component of the treatment, irritability, fluctuations of the emotional background, disruption of cardiovascular system, metabolic processes, also contributing to the progress of the disease.
In some cases, can cause arrhythmia and even vascular collapse, when the blood vessels do not receive adequate amount of blood. All it really worsen the condition of any patient, in particular, suffer from COVID-19.
— the nocebo Effect in fact can cause a number of unintended consequences, — said the Deputy head of the laboratory of analysis of indicators of population health and the digitization of health MIPT (University-participant of the competitiveness enhancement program of education “5-100”) Stanislav Otstavnov. — Imagine the following situation: a false positive result of an individual test, and the presence of several symptoms COVID-19 that occur in other respiratory illnesses (cough with heart problems, sneezing when injected into the nose of dust, pollen or reaction to light). They can assure the patient in his disease.
All interviewed by “Izvestia” experts said that the manifestation of the nocebo effect influences the nature of man. But, by assumption, Jeremy Howick and Giulio Ongaro, the degree of manifestation of the effect may depend on the nationality of the man, or rather, its culture. People from different countries have their peculiarities of perception and reaction to information connected with health.
So the specificity of the nocebo effect could partially explain the significant difference in the mortality rates among residents of different countries. For example, today in Germany the figure is 4.7% in Italy to 14.4% in the U.S. and 5.8%, Russia — 1,2%. Overall statistics shows a rather high mortality in southern Europe, and a slight average decrease together with the territorial promotion to the North.
— the human Perception of information about Bo��esneh and health may indeed depend on cultural characteristics — confirmed the head of the Department of human and animal physiology, Moscow state University. M. V. Lomonosov Andrei Kamensky. — Because emotion often depends on belonging to a particular nation. The men of the southern peoples (Italians, Spaniards, Greeks) are much more receptive to pain than the northerners, for example, the Norwegians or the Swedes. And it is not clear, the northerners do less feel the pain or more patient to her. This suggests that the peoples of the different apply to information about diseases, including emotionally.
of Course, in addition to the psychological perception of the disease on mortality is influenced by many other factors. Among them, genetic characteristics, lifestyle, immunity, and many others. However, you cannot deny that psychosomatics plays a huge role in the recovery of the person.
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