You've heard of the placebo effect—the tendency for patients who receive a phony treatment like a sugar pill to feel better just because they think the treatment will help them. That standard definition relies on deception. Surely the placebo effect doesn't work if you tell the patients they're taking placebos, right? Not necessarily, a new study finds. And, as DISCOVER blogger Ed Yong notes, this brings up an interesting ethical question:
Can doctors justifiably prescribe placebos to their patients? The standardansweris no. Doing so patronises the patient, undermines their trust, and violates the principles of informed consent. It compromises the relationship between doctor and patient. At worst, it could do harm.
But many of these arguments are based on the idea that placebo effects depend on belief; people must expect that treatments will work in order to experience any benefits. For a doctor to prescribe a placebo, they’d need to deceive. But according to Ted Kaptchuk from Harvard Medical School, deception may not be necessary. In a clinical trial, he found that patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) felt that their symptoms improved when they took placebo pills, even if they were told that the pills were inactive.
For plenty more about this, check out the rest of Ed's post
at Not Exactly Rocket Science. Related Content: Not Exactly Rocket Science: The Placebo Effect Affects Pain Signaling in the Spine
Not Exactly Rocket Science: A Biological Basis for Acupuncture, or More Evidence for a Placebo Effect?
80beats: 50% of U.S. Doctors Secretly Dose Their Patients—With the Placebo Effect
DISCOVER: Is the Placebo Effect a Myth?
Image: flickr/Fillmore Photography
