Placebos: How Docs Are Using Fake Medicine

[deepdiver]

Placebos: How Docs Are Using Fake Medicine to Shut You Up."

"The medical journal BMJ just published a study that showed half of all American doctors surveyed regularly prescribed placebos to their patients instead of an actual drug. American docs aren't alone: Similar surveys in other countries like the UK, Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand found that the practice seems to be global.

"In other words: Doctors tell you they're giving you one thing, and then they prescribe you another. And they're not just prescribing harmless sugar pills-they're doling out headache medicines (aspirin), vitamin pills, and very often antibiotics and sedatives. Imagine being given a sedative without knowing it! Does something seem wrong with this picture?

"Franklin G. Miller, one of the authors of the study and the director of a research ethics programs at the National Institutes of Health, said the study should give doctors 'pause' about whether they are engaging in 'deception' with their patients. I say…

"It should give you more than pause-it should be a huge red flag.

"The problem is, the solution being proposed by medical ethicists is almost as bad as the problem itself. Instead of suggesting that doctors stop prescribing placebos altogether, these nut jobs want doctors to actually tell their patients what they're doing!

"The very essence of a placebo is that the patient believes it to be an actual drug, and then the power of suggestion and positive thinking do the rest. What patient would take a placebo, knowing that it's a placebo?"
DR.D.

[Paxiled]

Still, all of the above are safer than most prescription drugs, so if it works . . .

[deepdiver]

I'm behind the times!  :^)~ LOL

[PlateletGal]

I read an article about this and posted it in the fibro/CFS forum months ago. Outrageous !