kingston Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/07/07/power-of-the-placebo/. According to this article more than 20% of Canadian Medical School doctors prescribe placebos. What is your opinion about it? If you were a doctor would you prescribe it? Knowing that by prescribing a placebo you're deceiving your patient? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnadee Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 hmm interesting...generally, under most clinical trial studies though, doctors are unaware which patients are receiving placebo and which are receiving the actual one.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithril Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 No, because it's lying to your patients. You're acting in a paternalistic fashion by not discussing what you're giving to the patients in a truthful manner. If the patient finds out, then you can expect an erosion in their trust in you as a professional and in the profession itself. The only time a placebo is ethical is in a study where the participants know beforehand that they may get a placebo. Deceitfully giving placebos doesn't have a place in today's patient-centred care system of healthcare. You aren't doing your job properly if you have to deceive your patient; it's taking the easy way out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanMaverick Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 People argue that placebos should not be used by healthcare practitioners because even if there is a potential "effect", it carries a high risk of destroying the therapeutic relationship and doesn't follow the ethical principles of autonomy etc. My personal stance is that there could/should be a role for them, but I can buy the argument against them and agree with it. What gets me is that then people FLOCK to alternative health sources (such as naturopaths, or worse, homeopaths) that charge excessive amounts of cash for what is nothing more then a placebo-science. Why is it ok for them to give these substances when they simply attach some ridiculous explanation as to it's mechanism of action (i.e. "the water molecules store the memory of cancer cells, so by giving you these water molecules in a small amount we can stimulate your immune system to cure your cancer"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnadee Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 People argue that placebos should not be used by healthcare practitioners because even if there is a potential "effect", it carries a high risk of destroying the therapeutic relationship and doesn't follow the ethical principles of autonomy etc. My personal stance is that there could/should be a role for them, but I can buy the argument against them and agree with it. What gets me is that then people FLOCK to alternative health sources (such as naturopaths, or worse, homeopaths) that charge excessive amounts of cash for what is nothing more then a placebo-science. Why is it ok for them to give these substances when they simply attach some ridiculous explanation as to it's mechanism of action (i.e. "the water molecules store the memory of cancer cells, so by giving you these water molecules in a small amount we can stimulate your immune system to cure your cancer"). hmm...just curious are you sure that all homeopathic meds claim such nonsense things...from what i have heard, although i could be wrong, some of these alternative forms of medicines do have natural medicinal plant ingredients... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanMaverick Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 hmm...just curious are you sure that all homeopathic meds claim such nonsense things...from what i have heard, although i could be wrong, some of these alternative forms of medicines do have natural medicinal plant ingredients... Many "real medications" come from as you state 'natural medicinal plant ingredients'. Aspirin? Came from willow bark. Paclitaxel? Came from the yew tree. As I once said to my mom, do you know what we call 'natural compounds' that work? MEDICINE. Do you know what we call the crap that doesn't? NATURAL HEALTH PRODUCTS. Edit - This guy says it better: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/sos-dd/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithril Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 hmm...just curious are you sure that all homeopathic meds claim such nonsense things...from what i have heard, although i could be wrong, some of these alternative forms of medicines do have natural medicinal plant ingredients...Homeopathy isn't exactly a branch of different medications. It's a subset of alternative medicine where proponents claim that water has the capacity of remembering what it's come in contact with. It's nothing more than quackery. Herbalism, where plants and plant extracts are used, can be dangerous if the active chemicals haven't been thoroughly tested for their effects on the human body. The evidence-based counterpart of herbalism is known as pharmacognosy. When these plant products or extracts have been proven to work based on scientific evidence or peer review, they eventually move into the realm of modern medicine and are no longer treated as "alternative". Alternative medicine stays alternative medicine because there's no evidence to suggest that they work better than a placebo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnadee Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 Many "real medications" come from as you state 'natural medicinal plant ingredients'. Aspirin? Came from willow bark. Paclitaxel? Came from the yew tree. As I once said to my mom, do you know what we call 'natural compounds' that work? MEDICINE. Do you know what we call the crap that doesn't? NATURAL HEALTH PRODUCTS. Edit - This guy says it better: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/sos-dd/ lol dont get so worked up about it...just because its possible for an alternative form of cure to exist but the fact that it is not reliable should not exclude the importance of researching or looking into it...although im no proponent of alternative healthcare, homeopathy has existed long before conventional medicine... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-euro_b_402490.html?show_comment_id=41447728 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samy Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 hmm...just curious are you sure that all homeopathic meds claim such nonsense things...from what i have heard, although i could be wrong, some of these alternative forms of medicines do have natural medicinal plant ingredients... For homeopathy, many of them do have plant ingredients, however, in a very very very small amount. It's extremely diluted... " Dilution of : 10^−60 -- Dilution advocated by Hahnemann for most purposes;[63] patient would need to consume 10^41 pills (a billion times the mass of the Earth), or 1034 gallons of liquid remedy (10 billion times the volume of the Earth) to consume a single molecule of the original substance[69] Moreover, since even in a 15C solution there would very likely be no molecules of the original substance left, the 30C solution would probably contain no molecules of water that had come into contact with the original substance. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy I've always been sceptic about this "alternative medecine" and I read a book last year about it. Obliviously, it was totaly pro-homeopathy... It claimed miraculous healing (even animal healing!! A dog got his tail smashed by a car door and took 3-4 pills of Arnica... less than a week later the dog's tail was healed...) Can't remember the name of the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward son Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 homeopathy has existed long before conventional medicine... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-euro_b_402490.html?show_comment_id=41447728 Seriously? Dana Ullman? Lol. Fraud has existed for waaaayyyy longer than homeopathy. Homeopathy just happens to be one of best examples of taking advantage of people with medical issues through fraud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeking1 Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 lol dont get so worked up about it...just because its possible for an alternative form of cure to exist but the fact that it is not reliable should not exclude the importance of researching or looking into it...although im no proponent of alternative healthcare, homeopathy has existed long before conventional medicine... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-euro_b_402490.html?show_comment_id=41447728 If you are this interested in homeopathy/naturopathy/alt med/herbalism, you would be better served to read the work of Edzard Ernst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBDOC15 Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 Seriously? Dana Ullman? Lol. Fraud has existed for waaaayyyy longer than homeopathy. Homeopathy just happens to be one of best examples of taking advantage of people with medical issues through fraud. lol... ya, apparently Dana is an "evidence based homeopath". Best misnomer ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.