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Using the doctor's name, the name of the drug and the
patient a computer network tells the pharmacist (when he
fills the order) to replace your drug with a placebo. This
could be helpful for people who are considering taking SSRIs
but the doctor isn't certain it's really needed. "We have this
special low-dose pill that many people say helps, try it for a
week and get back to me." If the placebo doesn't work then
the real drug can be used. Might be a good idea for other
mild conditions (or for conditions for which no drug exists)
--if
the mind can be tricked in to healing through the power of
medicine, why not use it even beyond clinical studies.
Prescribing Placebos
http://www.acsh.org...04/placebonomk.html
Unethical [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Prescribing Placebos
http://www.acsh.org...4/placeboyeskl.html
Ethical [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Murphy's Lawyers
http://www.halfbake...urphy_27s_20Lawyers
If your placebo works, expect a lawsuit from these guys. [beauxeault, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
[link]
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Not sure you'd want to tell people it was low dose though, I'd have thought, if you are resigned to lying anyway you might as well say; "almost everybody gets better on these pills I'm perscribing you now, so I won't expect to see you again, in the unlikly event of this treatment not working perfectly and quickly, then come back and we'll try something different" |
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As noted by snarfy, doctors do prescribe sugar pills. However, as noted in the links, doctors do not agree on whether this is ehtical. |
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Not sure that reassurance counts as mind trickery. How would you classify a doctor who prays with his/her (spiritually minded) patient? |
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Isn't this just involuntary homeopathic medication? |
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In the event that the placebo doesn't work, and said patient meets with some horrible consequence, it seems to me that the prescribing doctor has left himself open to a huge malpractice suit. How would this be addressed? |
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PS, it's far from homeopathic. A homeopathic "drug" would have some usually very dangerous substance diluted to the point that it's statistically impossible that any of it actually exists in the dose. In the placebo, this nonexistent agent is never intentionally introduced at all. It's a big difference. </sarcasm> |
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Ah, thanks BX. I understand now, I think... |
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X2Entendre, this would only be used for non-leathal, mild
conditions, or conditions that are persistant (such as
joint pain) where the real medications may give pain
relief, but also can cause harm. I think SSRIs are
overprescribed, this could reduce that. |
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Given the statistics on, say, placebo knee operations (the placebo operations being significantly more beneficial than the real operations in question), I think you can easily make a case for giving a placebo as being a valid course of treatment. |
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Wouldn't effective placebos be a violation of Murphy's Law? (link) |
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