Would you want to know if a medication you were taking was working as a placebo?

[AL_DA_GREAT]

If the medicine has side effects and/or costs a lot of money I might as well take an other placebo.

If the placebo effect makes eating useless pills good for me then I would eat them.

 

[El_Machinae]

This is one of my favorite medical ethics questions. When I spring it on people who're waiting for their interview into medical school, they're often boggled.

I went looking, and I found that different countries have different medical standards. AFAICT, it's something that needs to be decided by a committee, because there's no 'correct' answer. Do you inform your patient you're giving them a placebo? I just don't know!

My biggest objection (other than the fact that it limits information exchange) is that it might cause a masking of other symptoms. If a patient undergoes a deterioration that CAN be influenced with medicine, you'd want to notice as fast as possible.

OTOH, reducing suffering is very important. A white lie could have a large aggregate effect of reducing pain.

Man, I just don't know. But finding out about the power of placebos kinda changed my mind on 'alternative medicines'. If they're actually reducing suffering, then they *do* have a material benefit, instead of just being a net loss.

 

[azzaman333]

If I know it's a placebo, I'd stop taking it even if it'd continue to improve my condition because I'd be too lazy to take it any more.

 

[Mise]

What I find utterly weird is that placebos actually do work, compared with taking nothing at all.

I would want to know, but as a matter of policy it should be up to the doctor to determine based on his medical knowledge.

 

[emzie]

I'm surprised by the amount of yeses. Is the truth really worth suffering?

 

[Mise]

I'm surprised by the amount of yeses. Is the truth really worth suffering?

Personally I'm saying this as a healthy individual with a logical mind unencumbered by the desperation of impending death. My response as a sick man would undoubtedly be different; sat here, at my computer, without the pain of illness or the face of death in front of me, I can safely and risklessly indulge my curiousity and find out the truth.

"Please doc I'm begging you, just give me something for the pain!" - this is probably what I'd say in the moment.

 

[Silurian]

What I find utterly weird is that placebos actually do work, compared with taking nothing at all.

I would want to know, but as a matter of policy it should be up to the doctor to determine based on his medical knowledge.

Witch doctors had some effect.
Maybe it's the ritual of going to the doctor.

 

[tycoonist]

If it's working, what do I care? NHS ftw.

 

[Cutlass]

I was given Tylenol with codeine once. Turn's out that's a placebo. And wasn't effective at all.

 

[warpus]

What I find utterly weird is that placebos actually do work, compared with taking nothing at all.

And we don't even know why!

 

[El_Machinae]

We have a bit of an idea. I don't have time right now, but I am going to be doing a bit of an infodump on this topic this weekend. There're honestly things about placebo science that've blown my mind when I heard about them.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

A physician who prescribes a placebo is a failure as a physician.

 

[say1988]

Why? It is justas likely (if not moreso) a failure of medical science.

If you have the option of suffering without hope of a cure or having symptoms mitigated by dangerous and extremely expensive narcotics without hope of a cure or having symptoms mitigated by a completely safe and cheap placebo without hope for a cure which would you choose? I know which one I would and I wouldn't call my doctor a failure for doing it.

Further, the original point was you were prescribed a drug that medical science believed worked and only discovered that is was equivalent to a placebo after the fact. You can't fault a doctor for prescribing based on what the scientific community tells him.

 

[Mise]

We have a bit of an idea. I don't have time right now, but I am going to be doing a bit of an infodump on this topic this weekend. There're honestly things about placebo science that've blown my mind when I heard about them.

Thanks, that would be awesome.

IIRC there was a thread or article on CFC a while ago about placebos that blew my mind. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[illram]

We have a bit of an idea. I don't have time right now, but I am going to be doing a bit of an infodump on this topic this weekend. There're honestly things about placebo science that've blown my mind when I heard about them.

So we are studying this phenomenon? Every time I read about placebo effects in studies on other drugs I wonder why we are not studying the placebo effect more.

 

[Mise]

Found it!

Thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=333661

Article: http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect

 

[warpus]

We have a bit of an idea. I don't have time right now, but I am going to be doing a bit of an infodump on this topic this weekend. There're honestly things about placebo science that've blown my mind when I heard about them.

Yes please! I want my mind blown

 

[Ai Shizuka]

I was given Tylenol with codeine once. Turn's out that's a placebo. And wasn't effective at all.

This makes no sense.

Codeine is not a placebo. Maybe it wasn't enough in your specific case, but codeine or any other opiate analgesic isn't meant to be a placebo.

 

[emzie]

I was given Tylenol with codeine once. Turn's out that's a placebo. And wasn't effective at all.

Some people aren't able to convert codeine into morphine in their body. That doesn't mean the medication is a placebo.

A physician who prescribes a placebo is a failure as a physician.

In this case it's more like an SSRI once believe to be effective, later shown to not be.

 

[NetGear]

Humans are wired to take actions rather than be skeptic and be inert facing problems imo. Even if you don't believe in what you are doing, you may very well be sating that desired instinct by being proactive about it.