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You're not likely to hear about this from your doctor, but fake medical treatment can work amazingly well. For a range of ailments, from pain and nausea to depression and Parkinson's disease, placebos--whether sugar pills, saline injections, or sham surgery--have often produced results that rival those of standard therapies.
In a health care industry fueled by ever newer and more dazzling cures, this phenomenon is usually seen as background noise, or even as something of an annoyance. For drug companies, the placebo effect can pose an obstacle to profits--if their medications fail to outperform placebos in clinical trials, they won't get approved by the FDA. Patients who benefit from placebos might understandably wonder if the healing isn't somehow false, too.
But as evidence of the effect's power mounts, members of the medical community are increasingly asking an intriguing question: if the placebo effect can help patients, shouldn't we start putting it to work?
The Magic Cure: Startled by power of placebos, doctors consider how to use them as real treatment
Article Source: The Boston Globe- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (3)
In certain ways, placebos are ideal drugs: they typically have no side effects and are essentially free. And in recent years, research has confirmed that they can bring about genuine improvements in a number of conditions. An active conversation is now under way in leading medical journals, as bioethicists and researchers explore how to give people the real benefits of pretend treatment.
- 2 votes
#1 - Tue May 11, 2010 2:16 PM EDTThe ethical considerations are huge. Very interesting.
Some researchers argue that the real source of a placebo’s effect is the medical care that goes along with it--that the practice of medicine exerts tangible healing influences.
This is most likely behind much of the alternative medicine success. Things like homeopathy work because the homeopath actually listens and sympathises, which is something many doctors are very bad at indeed.
- 3 votes
#2 - Tue May 11, 2010 3:41 PM EDTThey also better make sure that they are diagnosing correctly. Cousin was being treated for a bad back, turns out when he went to ER, being in extreme pain, the Doctor asked him how long he'd had cancer. He lasted 42 more days after that.
Acutally listening as dungbeetlemania says is a problem with way too many MD's. They are doing less verbal history and relying on the written ones more. If a person can't effectively communicate in writing, there's a major gap in communication of any problems.
- 2 votes
#3 - Tue May 11, 2010 4:26 PM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
