What drugs is your doctor REALLY giving you? (Placebos aren't harmless any more!)
The following story was a real shocker to me!
Doctors prescribing placebo pills is not anything new, and actually I'm all for it in instances where it might help.
The mind is the most powerful healing device you have, and if a tool, like a harmless pill, can nudge your mind into effecting a cure and creating good health, so much the better.
However, in my opinion, the article below shows just how over-the-top the medical community has become when it prescribes placebo pills that are not harmless, do-nothings, but are serious drugs like painkillers, antibiotics, and sedatives.
The overuse of antibiotis in the U. S. is already legendary, but here are doctors prescribing it as a placebo! I sure hope the sedative recipients are given the "do not drive" warning even though they don't know they are taking a sedative!
The worst part is that the do this without telling the patient what he or she is receiving! Not only that, the majority of doctors in the study believe this is "ethically permissible." When did it become "ethically permissible" to prescribe a potenitally harmful drug and lie to the patient?
The more I see, the more I say: Go holistic!
Here's the story:
Doctors Often Prescribe Placebo Treatments
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20081024/hl_hsn/doctorsoftenprescribeplacebotreatments
By Ed Edelson HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Oct. 23 [2008] (HealthDay News) -- American doctors regularly prescribe placebo pills that are intended to have a psychological effect, a new survey finds.
However, the placebos reported by the 679 physicians in the survey often aren't the inactive substances used in controlled clinical trials, said Dr. Farr A. Curlin, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, and a member of the team reporting the finding in the Oct. 24 issue of the BMJ.
"Most people when they say 'placebo' think of something like a sugar pill," Curlin said. "But doctors can use a treatment that may have some effects but that they think will not have a direct effect on the patient except by the placebo effect."
The placebo effect, well-established in countless studies, is a benefit produced by assuring someone that whatever is being given will benefit whatever the problem happens to be -- "optimism or confidence that something is being done," as Curlin phrased it.
Only 3 percent of the doctors responding in the survey reported prescribing sugar pills. But 41 percent said they used over-the-counter painkillers as placebos, 38 percent used vitamins, 13 percent used antibiotics, and 13 percent used sedatives.
The survey also found that only 5 percent of the doctors who prescribe a placebo treatment describe it as such. The great majority, 68 percent, describe it as a potentially beneficial medicine or treatment not typically used for the condition.
And almost two-thirds of the doctors in the survey said they believed the practice to be ethically permissible.
"It's a gray zone," Curlin said. "It is not ethical to actively deceive patients. But when doctors give something which they think will help but don't think it helpful to explain the full reasoning about why it will help, that's a gray zone."
Placebo treatment "is pretty common in the practice of medicine," said Curlin, who acknowledged using it. "I give people the information I think a reasonable person would want to know, trying to be as candid as possible," he said. "There are times when I have said, 'Yes, I think it might be helpful, why don't you give it a try,' when I don't have confidence it will help their condition."
What matters is that the treatment can help, Curlin added. "The placebo effect is a real effect," he said. "People do feel better. To the extent that it can be mobilized in a way that is restful and not actively deceiving patients, I think it is acceptable."
Placebo treatment "is part of an old but good medical tradition," said Dr. David Spiegel, an assistant chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at
But straightforward lying about a prescription is wrong, said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, associate dean of the school of medicine at the
"The cornerstone of what treatment is acceptable is full disclosure for the patient," Leuchter said. "If you explain to the patient what you are doing, and why you are doing it, that is right. If you mislead a patient, there is a serious problem with that."
The appropriate way to explain a placebo treatment, Leuchter added, is to say, "There is no reasonable medical evidence that this pill is effective for your condition, but some people who take this pill say it makes them feel better."
It is important to note that "deception is not a necessary part of the placebo effect," Spiegel said. "You can tell people that the treatment might benefit them, and that is not a lie."
And the placebo effect is often at work in medical practice, Spiegel noted. "A lot of factors go into the effect of therapy, some of which are specifically pharmaceutical, and some are not. You might feel better, because you feel you are doing something actively to treat the problem."
The argument about the ethics of placebo treatment can also be turned around, he added. "There are ways to present placebo treatment that do not involve deception," he said. "You are doing it because it can help a patient, and a certain percentage of patients will respond. Especially in conditions where we do not have a lot of treatments, is it ethical to withhold it?"
More information
The history of placebo treatments is described in the Skeptics Dictionary.
It's been proposed that as many as 90% of doctor visits are to relieve symptoms of stress!
Before you go there, here are several articles with stress-reducing techniches and information that can help you stay clear of costly, potentially harmful medications that you don't need anyway!
Progressive Relaxation Technique II
SAD or Depressed? Antidepressants Are Out, Sunlight Is In!
12 Ways to Stay on Top of Stress
Stressed and Depressed, or dehydrated?
Laughter - It does a body good!
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