If it works, makes you better, it’s hard to argue against it as long as each pill doesn’t cost the same as the actual medicine version. I wonder how insurance companies deal with this? “$10 per sugar pill? I think not. Denied!”
Nearly half of Chicago doctors who responded to a survey say they have given dummy pills or other placebo treatments to patients — a practice some ethicists find troubling.
[…]
Placebo treatments included vitamins, herbal supplements, saline infusions, dummy pills and doses of medicine too low to be effective.One of the most common placebo treatments was giving antibiotics for viral infections that don’t respond to antibiotics.
Some ethicists oppose deceptionA placebo is a harmless pill or procedure that has no known physical benefit. Patients often get better because they believe in the treatment. For example, one study found that placebo pills work 80 percent as well as antidepressants.
What bothers me is the placebo they sometimes use is antibiotics for viral infections. Why do you think we have MRSA now?
[MRSA – Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus – ed.]
I have a bit of an issue with doctors who hand out placebos in a manner intended to deceive. However, I think that I’m okay with a doctor that hands out a placebo to a patient who is demanding of meds (even when they are not indicated). In this case, the doc is doing no harm and the patient may actually feel better. It’s not like Oxy’s are being handed out to any and all…
Not much different from handing out religion. Maybe less harmful.
I just wanted to say that Placebo is a pretty damn good band who I have enjoyed for nearly a decade now.
As for the topic… I’ll worry about placebos when everyone in this country actually has a doctor to get placebos from…
Note that 80% of the time, placebos worked in place of antidepressants. That’s because it’s all in their heads!
#6 – I doubt if thats true, but I’m not calling you out. I just don’t know. My experience says otherwise.
But yes, depression is all in the head… Because that’s where the brain and the biochemical causes for depression are stored.
#5
Placebo is nothing but the gynandromorphic emo version of R.E.M.
Angel you horny intellectual.
#9 – Oh now just you wait a minute there!
I like Placebo. But they are no where near being comparable to REM.
REM is one of the truly great bands of the last 50 years of rock. Placebo is one of the pretty good bands of the late 90s.
Let’s have some perspective here…
I wouldn’t have a problem if the physician went into his back room and filled a vial with some sugar pills and handed them to the patient. If he writes a script though and the customer has to pay for then I have a problem with that.
#1,
Excellent point!! I have no objection to use of placebos. They work quite often, if the person believes strongly enough. Faith healing works in the same way.
Personally, knowing this, I often try the placebo effect without the placebo. Knowing that one’s body has the capability to heal itself allows one the capability to effectively heal oneself about as often as placebos work.
So, I just imagine actively deploying white blood cells when I get sick. Sometimes I get over the cold much faster than the normal two weeks. Of course, for things that would not respond to placebos, this will not help. I have not regenerated my pancreas, for example.
Placebos are news? The government has been using placebos for years for the economy! 😉
Cheers
The real question is:-
Is ANYONE making a financial gain? This is misleading enough to trigger a malpractice charge if used deceptively. Deceptively as a means to making a financial gain that is. No. You can’t argue that it is “…in the best interests of the patient” if the deception leads to any kind of monetary gain for the hospital or the practitioner.
I can see the class action lawyers rubbing their hands together at this news.
ALL pills are charged (to somebody) This would need a trawl through the medical records to prove or disprove placebo instead of the actual pills charged for but Courts would readily allow that. I think that many Doctors may well find their futures at risk over this.
#11
I never said that Placebo was good.