By Alice Walton
Forbes
Originally published on March 22, 2013
A new British study out in the journal PLOS ONE is stirring up a lot of debate, as it gives some estimates on the number of doctors who are giving patients placebo to treat their various conditions. It finds that a resounding 97% of the 783 doctors surveyed admitted to giving patients some sort of placebo in their practice. But it would be misleading to say that doctors are giving patients sugar pills or saline injections at the drop of a hat – there are different kinds of placebos, and, as the survey found, doctors have different feelings about when each should be used. Not surprisingly, so does the public.
“Pure” placebos are indeed sugar pills or saline injections with no therapeutic value (aside from that stemming from the psychological effects – more on this later). This “pure” variety was used by about 12% of the general practitioners at some time in their careers. Among these doctors, there were various motivations, including the wish to generate psychological treatment effects, to calm patients, to appease patients’ wish for a treatment, and to treat “non-specific complaints.” Half the doctors only told their patients something vaguely promising, like “this therapy has helped many other patients.” About 25% told their patients that the treatment “promoted self-healing,” and less than 10% revealed that the treatment was actually placebo.
“Impure” placebos, on the other hand, are therapies for which there is no strong evidence that they work for a given problem – for instance, the use of antibiotics to treat a virus, off-label uses of medications, or probiotics for diarrhea. Impure placebos also include lab tests or physical exams that are given simply in order to reassure patients. This type of placebo was much more common, with 97% of doctors reporting their use at least once across their career, and 77% reporting “frequent” use, i.e., at least once per week.
The entire story is here.
The entire study, Placebo Use in the United Kingdom: Results from a National Survey of Primary Care Practitioners, is here.
