When people around him yawn, he yawns. When the chatroom he is in starts discussing brownies, biscuits and chocolate-covered strawberries he finds himself salivating. He has perfect trust in authority. He is easily persuaded and always abides by authority's advice. These are all indications that he is very suggestible indeed. It is not difficult to distinguish between these individuals and those who are less suggestible. Those who are more easily impressionable include preschool children, women in weak health and persons with somatization disorders. We have noticed that many psychological, social and behavioural factors tend to influence the efficacy of medication and the overall therapeutic outcome for these individuals compared with those who are less suggestible.Over the last two decades little attention has been paid to two psychosocial dimensions of pharmacology.The first dimension includes the psychological response of patients and families to medications and pharmacotherapy. Individuals in modern countries may accept medications with unwavering belief in their effectiveness, whereas some ethnic groups do not.The second dimension that has been largely overlooked is the psychological, social and behavioural factors that influence drug metabolism, efficacy and side-effects. In order to describe the phenomenon as well as to differentiate it from psychopharmacology, we here coin a new term: psychosocialpharmacology [1].Psychopharmacology studies drug-induced changes in mood, sensation, thinking and behaviour [2]. Psychosocialpharmacology is a new interdisciplinary approach that includes psychology, sociology and clinical pharmacology. It explores the puzzling efficacy differences associated with nonpharmacological factors among patients. It advocates considering the patient's psychological, social and behavioural components that influence drug efficacy in a similar manner as does the patient's genetics and physiology, and the disease itself. Furthermore, psychosocialpharmacology also studies the effect of the medical professional's manner and speech on medication efficacy.As a new element of pharmacology, we think that psychosocialpharmacology demands to answer the following questions:
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