48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Magnolia — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:25:30 GMT

Would love some hungry attorneys to go after some of these doctors. If I am paying for a certain drug, can they substitute something else and still legally charge me for the drug? That's fraud and a punishable offense. Any attorneys out there who can shed light on this?

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Debrah — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:29:50 GMT

I find the idea that drs are lying to their patients by giving them placebos to shut them up to be absolutely horrifying--that is outright fraud--Unless one has voluntarily agreed to be a part of a study. They need to take the time to educate and reassure their patients and to sugggest non -drug ideas to ease their discomfort--the proverbial chicken soup, herbs such as lemon balm and echancea, elderberry, a warm mist vaporizer with esential oils for example for colds/flus rather than anti-biotics. I am lucky to have a great DO for a family doctor--he does just that. And one good side effect of his knowing how anti-drug i am --he really listens when I say I or my kids are sick, he knows we don't take anything unless we really need it! He also refers patients to me who need stress releif.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Cynthiak23 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:34:37 GMT

I suppose placebos have their place PROVIDING that the doctor has really taken the time to make sure it isn't a purely hypochondriac situation.

I have MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) and the AMA doesn't recognize it, purely because of political reasons. Because most doctors are not trained to diagnose this condition, often they will tell their patients that "it's all in their mind".

MCS is caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. You will never hear about this on the media. It would only prove that people are being harmed by these toxic products that the government allows on the market. Toxic products produced by corporations and by the pharmaceutical companies.

Actually there is no real cure for MCS, other than staying away from toxins. Supplements, a healthy diet and a toxic free environment will help.

Too bad for the MCS person who doesn't know that he/she has it. At least with a proper diagnosis, that person would know what necessary changes in lifestyle he/she would have to make, OR MAYBE THE DOCTOR CAN PRESCRIBE A PLACEBO, BECAUSE "IT"S ALL IN THEIR MIND".

Sick, Yes--Psycho, No

People With Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Fight To Be Believed

by Will Moredock

www.geocities.com/.../bestscience.html

MCS Symptoms

www.mcsrr.org/.../mcsdisorders.html

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

human freedom — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:25:19 GMT

i PRAY that I won't have to go to doctor's ofc. ever(present conventional). Many yrs. ago, Icalled the Dr. that was treating MY first born son for a bad injury,at thAT time, the possiblity of brain injury was posible. Normal dads have the right to know how is his son doing. The !*(&#@!( said: You don't have to ask questions, I'm a prossional, I know what I'm doing. 3 yrs. ago I was overcomed by a brain injury I suffered. Not only it affected physically but emotioal functions. Didn't know who I was,etc,etc. I wanted and needed help from doctors to get my life together----all they wanted to do--- put me on pain medication,when I did not agreed, you should have been there to witness the uncaring look in thier eyes. Thank God, I'm doing real good now---since I gotten help from HEALING doctors and info. from Dr. mercola and good concerned people like you all

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Shadeaux — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:58:50 GMT

If the placebo effect is so strong, then why dont' doctors simply encourage thier patients. For example, if someone is diagnosed with cancer, instead of telling them they only have 6 months to live, why not tell them that they CAN beat this? Offer them hope, instead of setting it in thier mind that thier is none.This has also proven effective in many cases, and the doctor isn't lying to the patient, or handing out phony medications, but bolstering the patients state of mind, which can then begin to actually fight the disease.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Melsocks — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:07:32 GMT

I think giving a placebo is NOT helpful IF the patient might start worrying about conflicting medications and stop something else that is important. I don't know - I think patients should research their medications to know all the side effects, etc... I guess a Dr. would prescribe a placebo to a hapless individual, not someone who would appear intelligent??

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

feel_good_today — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:59:48 GMT

Have to thank the Drs. for giving placebo's,

think of all the lives they are saving by not giving prescription drugs.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

denken2a — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:43:25 GMT

I am 51, male with depression taking Zoloft.

Do I have the right to know if I'm receiving a placebo?

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

YARDBIRD — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:56:31 GMT

I try to use a natural remedy for everything that I can... My former doctor believed that a pill could cure anything instead of trying to get a person healthy, or preventing the problem in the first place. I only rely on a doc if there is something wrong that my own body cant heal. Thank goodness for the net, and the availability of information.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

bmc — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:11:47 GMT

I don't like the way many doctors are over using drugs, but lying to a patient about what they are being given is totally wrong.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

jonallen — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:39:00 GMT

My father was a Navy-trained surgeon, and as such, the best osteopath in the north country. When I collided with a car that turned left in front of my motorcycle, my kneecap cracked into 6 peices against the roll bar, and my father wired it back together. He also did a large number of other patients a great deal of good, extending their health and well being for many years. But he did something that was all too common back then: dispense shots of penicillin as placebos. His thinking was that it couldn't cause any harm, and it might do some good. We now have more penicillin and other anti-biotic resistant strains of various diseases circulating various populations than ever before. And it doesn't help that paranoid consumers feel that every time they wash their hands they need to use an "anti-bacterial" soap. This only encourages normally benign bacteria to evolve into something far more dangerous. Over 99% of all naturally occuring bacteria are easily managed by a healthy human immune system, but at the rate we are currently encouraging changes in our bacterial populations, this is bound to go down.

FOR EVERYONE'S SAFETY, STOP USING UNNEEDED ANTI-BIOTICS!

Baking soda, vinegar, salt, et cetera are all safe, effective cleansing agents that effectively keep bacteria at bay without encouraging difficult mutations. If you keep on using operating room anti-biotics in everyday situations, you'll be out of luck if you ever need to be operated on, since you could be covered with anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

shaneperrone — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:00:53 GMT

just goes to show how powerful the mind can be, although an antibiotic as a placebo wouldn't be very fun when you have to run to the bathroom :\

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Alexis_203 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:13:23 GMT

How amazing and shocking that doctors would call "deceit" and "fraud" a placebo! I'm just so surprised.(*gasp*)

I take it then that after lying they refused the money from the patient?

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

Mr.AK — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:20:17 GMT

The first paragraph is grossly misleading. The odds are not 50-50 that you get a placebo each time you get a prescription from your doctor. The survey said that 50% of doctors said they have given placebos at SOME POINT. So your odds of having a doctor who sometimes prescribes placebos is 50%.

re: 48 Percent of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos Just to Shut You Up

LORENLSMITHHughes — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:06:41 GMT

The ones who received the placebo were the ones who survived. Lets see.....$20 for co-pay, $5 for the red pill and you get to live a little longer. What a bargain!!! If we were the least imaginative, we'd start a placebo company and guarantee the results would be far beyond anything known to modern medical science.