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Prescription Placebo!

Heh. I like the logo.

http://www.theonion.com/images/248/article1789.jpg
article1789.jpg
 
The've got another version of that image at http://www.theonion.com/images/248/article_popup1789.jpg, which is big enough to read the list of things it's effective against and its side-effects.

(Watch out for those side effects, though -- according to the article, "Basically, whichever side effects were included on the questionnaire, we found in research subjects.")
 
Imagine the TV ad. They can't say what the medication is for, or they are obliged to list the side effects. So:

Feeling anything at all lately? Ask you doctor about Sucrosa. Let the sun shine in. It's going to work.

Of course, they might be able to say this:

If you have any ailment at all, you need Sucrosa. Talk to your doctor. Let the sun shine in. It's going to work.

(Side effects about the same as placebo.)


~~ Paul
 
Believe it or not, there have been serious suggestions made over here to allow doctors to prescribe placebos.
 
Prescribe placebos? Wow, imagine the lawsuits!

Wait, what does the doctor tell the patient? "I am going to prescribe Panawanazil for your headaches. Of course, it may just be a placebo. Even I won't know."

~~ Paul
 
Did they remember to use the slogan:

Placebo --- sets the standards.
 
Or,

Use the power of your mind: Fool yourself with Sucrosa. Hey, what harm can it do?

And new on your pharmacist's shelves: homeopathic Sucrosa!

~~ Paul
 
You may think it's funny, but my mother's job is to take care of mentally retarded people. We once had a lady that always "felt" sick. Of course it was all in her mind.

So a "prescription" of placebo later, the problem is fixed. She never complained again.
 
Javalar said:
You may think it's funny, but my mother's job is to take care of mentally retarded people. We once had a lady that always "felt" sick. Of course it was all in her mind.

So a "prescription" of placebo later, the problem is fixed. She never complained again.
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There are appalling ethics dilemmas there though.

In a psychiatric ICU I used to work in, we had an unusually long term patient - an inappropriate 'challenging behaviour' case actually - who was violent, and on various medication. She used to come asking for her tablet saying she felt angry and anxious - she'd be threatening, and shouting, throwing stuff, etc. But as soon as she'd had her tablet, that very instant she'd calm down (obviously not understanding the amount of time it takes for the drug to have an effect).

It felt really dodgy giving real medication on this basis, so the psychiatrists, senior nurses and the patient's family all agreed on a placebo treatment instead - smarties, I believe.

Again, worked a treat. Still not quite sure what I think about it - maybe some kind of 'official' strategy would be better than a slightly amateurish ad hoc one?

Good article though - the Onion rocks!
 
Nucular said:
Unless it was a sugar pill, of course. Oh, I think that's what you meant. D'oh!
Click to expand...

You were right the first time. A "sugar pill" placebo would make diabetes worse.

And, just for the record, prescribing a placebo, outside the confines of a clinical trial where the patient is aware that they may be receiving one, is considered unethical behavior in medicine.

-TT
 
Originally posted by ThirdTwin
And, just for the record, prescribing a placebo, outside the confines of a clinical trial where the patient is aware that they may be receiving one, is considered unethical behavior in medicine.
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I can understand why, I guess. Still, if it would work, but you don't give it, that's not good either, right?

The real solution is to convince people that their attitude is as important as it actually is.
 
69dodge said:
I can understand why, I guess. Still, if it would work, but you don't give it, that's not good either, right?

The real solution is to convince people that their attitude is as important as it actually is.
Click to expand...

Yes. We don't want to trick patients. We want to treat them. Imagine what happens if and when the patient finds out they've been given a sugar pill? One can just imagine how this would further negatively affect the doctor-patient relationship, especially given the rampant access to the bad, often difficult to interpret information as well as conspiracy theories available via the Internet.

The aim is to build trust, not pre-emptively destroy it.

-TT
 
69dodge said:
The real solution is to convince people that their attitude is as important as it actually is.
Click to expand...
You've got to be careful with this one too. Attitude is important to how a patient feels, in that someone who is relaxed and calm will feel better than someone who is tense and anxious. That's often how a placebo works. However, it's never been shown that anxious patients actually do less well in the objective course of the illness itself, and all this stuff about taking control of one's condition and beating an illness by positive thinking and mind power is so much BS.

Relaxed an non-anxious is a good way to be for its own sake, and of course if a condition is wholly or partly due to stress then removing or reducing stress is obviously going to help a lot. But so far as whether or not your cancer goes into remission, or any other objective outcome is concerned, it's not going to make that much difference.

A down side of all this "attitude" business can be to put patients under even more stress as they try to manufacture the right attitude, and then if their progress happens not to be too good they can get very depressed and self-blaming as they imagine that they've "failed" in the mind-exercises they were set to do.

It may be arguable that a doctor might give a placebo so long as he himself isn't fooled into imagining the sugar pill has any therapeutic value. Psychotherapy by deception, perhaps. But that's a very two-edged sword, and the powers that be who decided this was unethical maybe had the right of it.

Rolfe.
 
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