Dr Juliette Petit: How Nurses Can Prevent Nocebo Effect in Biosimilar Switching

If you are aware of the placebo effect, you may have heard of its opposite relative, the nocebo effect, where instead of positive thinking leading to an improvement in health, patient fears about drug quality may result in little or no effect from therapy. The nocebo effect is a common concern in the biosimilar space, where patients often doubt whether biosimilars are clinically similar to reference products.

A recent study on the nocebo effect in biosimilar use demonstrated that nurses may be best able to boost patient confidence in biosimilars and improve retention rates. The authors noted that because nurses are usually the first point of contact for patients in the health care system, they can be effective advocates at facilitating switching and biosimilar acceptance.

We sat down with Juliette Petit, MD, a rheumatologist at Saint-Antoine Hospital at Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and one of the study’s co-authors to discuss some of the major points in her study what it could mean for the future of biosimilar uptake.

Learn more about Dr Petit’s study.