Hi Andee,
I have not written much about chemotherapy in my FAQs, but I am aware of research that says that much vomiting that happens with chemotherapy is psychosomatic or heavily influenced by psychic things. For example, chemo patients are frequently given antiemetics before their treatment. There is an IV antiemetic which is almost 100 percent effective, but some people were vomiting after it was given because they thought it was their chemotherapy agent and that they were supposed to vomit from it! Thus, the antiemetic only became truly therapeutic when people were told what it was.
Another article I read focused on the stimuli that accompany chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting. These are highly influenced by surroundings. One child patient threw up after her first treatment just as the car passed a certain intersection. Even after she was at the point where her vomiting should have been under control, she would continue to puke whenever they got to that intersection. The doctors persuaded her father to take a different route home, and she never vomited from chemo again.
Some of this can relate to regular emets too. It explains how some of us can have anxiety over the cup that we drank from, the pajamas we were wearing, the sheets that were on the bed, song that was on the radio, etc., even though these things defy rational expectations.
I stated in my "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Emetophobia"that emets can practice "mind over matter" to keep themselves from vomiting. I believe this in part because the mind is so powerful in causing vomiting. It is true that emets eat a lot of the same foods and breathe in the same viruses as other people but are much less likely to vomit as a result. The daily cogitation that emets put into preventing vomiting no doubt keeps it from happening.
Doug
To learn more about emetophobia, see
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