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I found this article on http://www.drudgereport.com
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081023/D940G7Q01.html
Basically it says that 62% of internists and rheumatologists would use a placebo treatment and say it's ethical to do so. It's hard to fathom that docs would prescribe something just to “do something” when it's not needed or ineffective but give us a hard time when we show Dr. Brown's information and ask for antibiotics!
Here's an excerpt:
[font=”Verdana,Sans-serif”] “Researchers at the NIH sent surveys to a random sample of 1,200 internists and rheumatologists – doctors who treat arthritis and other joint problems. They received 679 responses. Of those doctors, 62 percent believed that using a placebo treatment was ethically acceptable.
Half the doctors reported using placebos several times a month, nearly 70 percent of those described the treatment to their patients as “a potentially beneficial medicine not typically used for your condition.” Only 5 percent of doctors explicitly called it a placebo treatment.
Most doctors used actual medicines as a placebo treatment: 41 percent used painkillers, 38 percent used vitamins, 13 percent used antibiotics, 13 percent used sedatives, 3 percent used saline injections, and 2 percent used sugar pills.
In the survey, doctors were asked if they would recommend a sugar pill for patients with chronic pain if it had been shown to be more effective than no treatment. Nearly 60 percent said they would.”
[/font]Hi Susan,
Very interesting study. Too bad they only got a little over half back. I would have to agree with the docs who said it was ethical to use placebo, especially if it were proven to be more effective than nothing. Most of us are aware of the mind-body connection. The placebo effect has been widely studied and documented. So it stands to reason that rheumies should be eager to prescribe minocycline for RA because it succeeded in a double blind study. Double blind studies eliminate the placebo effect!
Joe
I wish the placebo effect worked on me! I have been prescribed about ten billion drugs over the last two years, all of which I had high hopes would cure me. Oh well!
Maybe reality will kick in when I start AP. 🙂
I am always amazed and disgusted when people behave unethically. But it keeps happening. Look at the way the banks issued loans that put people and themselves in peril! Individuals made a quick buck and ran with it leaving families and institutions to collapse. People took loans to get into houses they could not afford because “everyone else was doing it.” Lack of integrity is destroying our civilization, and we are allowing it.
Joe, I totally disagree about the use of placebos. Yes, it is a well known phenomenon, but using it in a clinical setting in the manner described is reprehensible. Perhaps vitamins or ABX could be used because they MIGHT actually have some efficacy that is unknown. The money these doctors receive is REAL; the treatments they give should be REAL, too. Reality is harsh, but sheesh, scientist and doctors wonder why we don't believe in them anymore. Well, duh.
Ends DO NOT justify MEANS!
Dr. S's nurses told me he would never get involved in a double blind study because he knew the treatment worked and thought it was unethical to deny some patients the real treatment.
I've always thought the double blind studies seemed unethical and very limited in the actual results they collect. Evidently, I am not the only one! A UK mp-er posted this over at the mp site:
So I'll stroke my MP lab rat whiskers and ponder the future of clinical studies and double blind trials. 😕
Oh!!! I should share that in a week I will be returning to the “stage” again and performing live in a chamber music concert. The performance is dinner music for a community event, but it's a real testament to how much I've recovered so far!
😎
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