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Patients' pretreatment expectations of chemotherapy-related nausea are an independent predictor of anticipatory nausea

  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Based on extensive research with animals, classical conditioning theorists have come to regard contingency as the primary factor in the development of conditioned responses. However, recent experimental work with humans has suggested the possibility that participant expectations may also directly contribute to the development of conditioned responses. To date, this phenomenon has not been investigated in clinical settings. Anticipatory nausea (AN) in chemotherapy patients, widely viewed as the best established example of classical conditioning in clinical medicine, provides an opportunity to examine the contributions of patient expectations to the development of a conditioned response outside the laboratory. The present study of 59 breast cancer patients supported the hypothesis that pretreatment patient expectations make a significant (p<.03) contribution to the development of AN after statistically controlling for the strongest conditioning predictor, contingency. These data imply that patient expectations should be considered when evaluating conditioned responses to aversive medical treatments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biobehavioral Medicine Program, Cancer Prevention and Control, Derald H. Ruttenberg Cancer Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1130, 10029-6574, New York, NY

    Guy H. Montgomery, Dana H. Bovbjerg & William H. Redd

  2. VA Medical Center, Baltimore

    Naomi Tomoyasu

  3. Cornell University Medical College, New York, USA

    Dana H. Bovbjerg

  4. University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Kentucky, USA

    Michael A. Andrykowski

  5. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

    Violante E. Currie

Authors
  1. Guy H. Montgomery
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  2. Naomi Tomoyasu
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  3. Dana H. Bovbjerg
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  4. Michael A. Andrykowski
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  5. Violante E. Currie
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  6. Paul B. Jacobsen
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  7. William H. Redd
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Additional information

H. Lee Moffit Cancer Center

Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by a training grant from The National Cancer Institute (CA09461) and research grants from The National Cancer Institute (CA66227) and the Department of the Army (DAMD 17-94-J-4141). We are required to indicate that, “The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the government.”

We acknowledge the technical assistance of Ms. Dorothy Parks and the useful comments of Dr. John F. Kihlstrom on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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Montgomery, G.H., Tomoyasu, N., Bovbjerg, D.H. et al. Patients' pretreatment expectations of chemotherapy-related nausea are an independent predictor of anticipatory nausea. ann. behav. med. 20, 104–108 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02884456

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02884456

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