GPs sometimes give placebo drugs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21834440

I suppose giving a placebo to a known hypochondriac and monitoring the situation closely to see if it works, might be an idea. However I am not sure that is very ethical.

It wouldn't work on me though. I am an atypical hypochondriac who avoids doctors like the plague. I detest any form of medication as it rarely agrees with me as I am bound to have every side effect going, once I have read the leaflet which comes with it!

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Your post made me smile Willow - it reminded me of Victor Meldrew reading a Home Doctor Book and he read out one awful ailment that said 'there are no early warning symptoms of this disease' and he said 'no early warning symptoms - that's what I've got'

I think placebos have a place in the modern world - many people need to think someone cares and is doing something to help them and if the placebo helps to achieve that, then it's doing it's job as much as any other treatment.

I once worried I'd become a hypochondriac and I asked my (then) GP, he laughed and said 'no, you're not. A hypochondriac doesn't have run of the mill illnesses, they tend to have Beri Beri or Blackwater fever and if we tell them they haven't , they call us quacks and go looking for a second opinion. You believe me when I tell you that you are fine - something a hypochondriac would never accept'.

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I am terrible, the slightest twinge and I think I have got something life threatening! The worst thing a hypochondriac can do is look it up on-line! I tell people never to ask me how I am, in case I tell them and they have 24hrs to spare! When my kids phone me, the first thing they say is, "You are fine Mum!" when I am about to launch into that day's ailments!

I do have a streaming cold today though, my first since March last year. Mind you I could be going down swine/bird/whatever flu/plague etc!

If a placebo works that is great. I cannot for the life of me see that homeopathy is anything but a placebo as the ingredients used are in such teeny, tiny quantities. However many people find the products efficacious, even though the medical profession is largely sceptical. I suppose it all depends how a GP explains to the patient the nature of the placebo they are providing. If they say this might be helpful, or words to that effect, ok. However if they tell the patient they are taking an antibiotic, for instance, when they are just having a sugar pill, that is a lie and WRONG.

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I don't think they tell the patient it's a placebo, it's given as a bone fide medicine; my mother has been taking a sleeping tablet for donkey's years (a sugar pill) and swears she can't sleep unless she takes it. If she had a real sleep problem, the pill wouldn't work so, in that sense, the pill she is taking is working.

I smiled at your summation of yourself Willow - I used to be just like that; until I got something horrid and never did it again! It's natural to be concerned though isn't it and we all tend to think the worst sometimes. At least you haven't said you thought you'd had Beri Beri

I always smile at the medical profession when they make comments about homeopathy given that many of their treatments are just the same

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OMG I hadn't thought of Beri Beri, I better look it up!

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No Willow! That might be the one with no apparent symptoms to begin with

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In which case I have definitely got it!

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Sounds a sensible idea to me and less harmful to patients than some medications.

Placebos can work very well, for me homoeopathy comes under the heading of placebos..


http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon...meopathy.shtml