'The Emperor's New Drugs'
Started by tr
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Correct. Activated placebos are not inert substances and typically produce SEs when administered although they have no direct therapeutic effects (purportedly). Researchers have postulated that the presence of SEs and their being detected by participants yields higher effect sizes than inert placebos.
Surprised those are ethical to administer.
Whats the rule on when you can give placebos or not? I'm assuming you never tell the patient and only give it when the case isnt that serious and you arent sure if they are faking or need medication. But not sure.
They're only given as part of a study and usually a double-blind, RCT. The participant is informed that they may receive an active compound, an inert placebo, or an activated placebo which will not be disclosed until the study is completed.
Placebos (active or inert) are not given as part of treatment that is not part of a study, or at least they shouldn't be.
Are active placebos different than troll food?
This actually gets talked about more often than I thought it would, but then again I grew up in a time when Prozac was on the cover of Time magazine.
Good question.
It's not unethical to give a placebo as long as you inform the patient that it is a placebo. (I probably wouldn't intentionally give an *active* placebo, although I'm starting to think of a lot of the meds I do prescribe this way.)
I don't have time to dig up the study now, but apparently even if you tell the patient "This is a sugar pill but I think it will help you," most of them will agree to take it and the placebo effect is quite strong.
I would totally give out sugar pills if I could find them. I'm considering telling people to take some kind of benign OTC vitamin pill instead, before I give them an SSRI.
I don't have time to dig up the study now, but apparently even if you tell the patient "This is a sugar pill but I think it will help you," most of them will agree to take it and the placebo effect is quite strong.
I would totally give out sugar pills if I could find them. I'm considering telling people to take some kind of benign OTC vitamin pill instead, before I give them an SSRI.
