Placebos

[CharmingHedgehog]

Here's an interesting article: http://www.besthealthmag.ca/blog/post/news-canadian-doctors-prescribing-placebo-pills%E2%80%94and-they-work

 

I find it interesting that about 50% surveyed were psychiatrists.

 

Would you ever give a patient placebo? and would you tell them?

Let's say there's a patient who you really think is a hypochondriac, or whose symptoms need excessive therapy/can't be managed properly with existing therapy. Would you consider placebo? E.g. if a patient suffers from bad arthritis pains, and high dose opioids are already ineffective. Would you add a placebo and tell the patient it's a "new drug, very effective for pain"?

 

In pediatric wards, there's a practice of treating the parents. I saw a doctor prescribing amoxicillin as prophylaxis therapy for sinusitis, when the child is already on amoxicillin for preventative measures after spleen removal. Obviously, the antibiotic is not going to do anything, and it was unlikely that the sinusitis will recur. So the doctor was only pacifying the parent. Would you do that?

[MD2015]

I would never go there.