Researching into the ‘‘nocebo’’ effect, I came across a couple of articles which mentioned a case in which a doctor informed his patient that he had only five years left to live, as a result of a lung disease. Exactly five years later to the day, the patient was found on a beach, unconscious (the patient was snorkeling at the time) and had endured oxygen deprivation for four minutes. After being resuscitated, he was put on life support, which failed to maintain him after he slipped into a coma.
Is it possible for suggestion to cease such autonomic processes such as breathing? It is acknowledged that the nocebo effect can trigger death by hypotension if the subject is tricked into believing that he or she is bleeding to death, as I mentioned in a previous post, but that is a different matter as breathing involves the brainstem.
I don’t see how it could. The autonomous breathing reflex is pretty hard to overcome. You will breathe if unconscious so I can’t see how any conscious thought could override that.
Even IF you could convince a person to stop breathing, the worst case scenario is that he’d pass out, and then his body would start breathing automatically again.
The release of stress hormones is also an involuntary action, which can be invoked via the nocebo effect. Do excuse me as the subject of neurology is not what I am the most adept in, hence the question.
ALGERNON. My dear Aunt Augusta, I mean he was found out! The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live, that is what I mean—so Bunbury died.
LADY BRACKNELL. He seems to have had great confidence in the opinion of his physicians. I am glad, however, that he made up his mind at the last to some definite course of action, and acted under proper medical advice.