October 24, 2008
How would you feel if you learned that, after visiting your doctor and
describing your symptoms, she prescribed pills that turned out to be a
placebo? Since a new survey shows half of U.S. physicians do it, it
may have already happened to you.
The study, published in BMJ formerly the British Medical Journal is based on the 679 physicians who responded to the survey. About half of the surveyed internists and rheumatologists reported prescribing placebo treatments on a regular basis.
Most physicians 62 percent said they believed the practice to be ethically permissible. Few reported using saline or sugar pills as placebo treatments, while large proportions reported using over the counter analgesics and vitamins as placebo treatments within the past year.
A small but notable proportion of physicians reported using antibiotics and sedatives as placebo treatments during the same period.
And what do these doctors tell their patients? In most cases, the survey indicates physicians who use placebo treatments most commonly describe them to patients as a potentially beneficial medicine or treatment not typically used for their condition. Only rarely do they explicitly describe them as placebos, the authors write.
Prescribing placebo treatments seems to be common and is viewed as ethically permissible among the surveyed doctors. Dr. William Schreiber, an internist in Louisville, Kentucky, told the New York Times he has serious doubts about the report's accuracy. He said some doctors with "difficult" patients might prescribe an over the counter pain killer, but argued that might not qualify as a placebo in every case.
