placebo effect/ mind-body

[one love]

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In clinical trials, all drugs are compared to placebos when studying their efficacy. Until recently, doctors have always regarded the placebo effect as a nuisance because it could mess up their drug data. Now, doctors are coming to see that this phenomenon is something that should no longer be ignored because it demonstrates the incredibly powerful role a patient's mindset or beliefs can play in their healing. However, with this comes the ethical question of whether or not you should give sugar pills or do sham surgery to invoke a healing response in a patient. The postive spin on invoking a placebo effect is that it is less invasive and patients would not have to expose themselves to drug side effects. However, the downside is that you would achieve results through deception. Any thoughts?

also, an interesting article on the nocebo effect: http://www.hippocrates.com/archive/November1999/11departments/11integrative.html

 

[latinfridley]

its not really deception if they sign an informed consent document. they are told they could recieve a placebo.

 

[one love]

no, I don't mean giving placebos in studies. I mean using it as a therapeutic option that, say, a primary care physician could use. You wouldn't be dealing with informed consent in this scenario and if you tell patients they are getting placebos, the placebo effect would probably not occur since a patient would have to believe that the pill they are getting would actually be doing something to them.

 

[latinfridley]

Originally posted by one love
no, I don't mean giving placebos in studies. I mean using it as a therapeutic option that, say, a primary care physician could use. You wouldn't be dealing with informed consent in this scenario and if you tell patients they are getting placebos, the placebo effect would probably not occur since a patient would have to believe that the pill they are getting would actually be doing something to them.

oh. yeah thats totally evil. lawsuits waiting to happen.

 

[pallhaco doce]

There are people that do this already -- "faith" healers and psychic healers. All smoke and mirrors to make it look like they are doing something, but in actuality they are just manipulating the patient's outlook. Probably works for a lot of people because there are a lot of hypochondriacs out there, but outlook can actually help other people with physical problems. Regardless, even if it works, a physician should never substitute something like this for real treatment. If you do this, how is a patient ever going to trust that you do what you tell them?