May 15, 2008

48% Of Doctors Admit To Prescribing Placebos Just To Shut You Up

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48% Of Doctors Admit To Prescribing Placebos Just To Shut You Up

guitar22891
QUOTE
48% Of Doctors Admit To Prescribing Placebos Just To Shut You Up
According to a survey by the University of Chicago, 48% of doctors said "they have given at least one treatment when there was no evidence it would work."


Placebo treatments included vitamins, herbal supplements, saline infusions, dummy pills and doses of medicine too low to be effective. One of the most common placebo treatments was giving antibiotics for viral infections that don't respond to antibiotics. Unneeded antibiotics? Oh, what an awesome idea.

I actually caught a doctor of mine doing this. I was experiencing a crazy type of insomnia where I'd wake up every 45 minutes all night long for like, um, years. I finally decided that this was abnormal and went to the doctor to ask for some help. He said it was probably "stress" and prescribed something to take before bed. When I went to fill the prescription, the pharmacist goes, "Ok, I could fill this, but its just half of a benadryl. They're right over there on the shelf, and you can just break them in half."


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http://consumerist.com/341997/48-of-doctor...-to-shut-you-up

 

 

 


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Joshua
QUOTE(guitar22891 @ Jan 9 2008, 12:03 PM) *
48% Of Doctors Admit To Prescribing Placebos Just To Shut You Up
According to a survey by the University of Chicago, 48% of doctors said "they have given at least one treatment when there was no evidence it would work."
Placebo treatments included vitamins, herbal supplements, saline infusions, dummy pills and doses of medicine too low to be effective. One of the most common placebo treatments was giving antibiotics for viral infections that don't respond to antibiotics. Unneeded antibiotics? Oh, what an awesome idea.

I actually caught a doctor of mine doing this. I was experiencing a crazy type of insomnia where I'd wake up every 45 minutes all night long for like, um, years. I finally decided that this was abnormal and went to the doctor to ask for some help. He said it was probably "stress" and prescribed something to take before bed. When I went to fill the prescription, the pharmacist goes, "Ok, I could fill this, but its just half of a benadryl. They're right over there on the shelf, and you can just break them in half."


The thing is, just because doctors prescribe something when there's no evidence it will work, doesn't mean they're doing it to shut someone up. It may have been a rare case where there were no known treatments or else treatments that would normally be available for whatever reason were unavailable at the moment, and thus the doctor had to pick something he didn't know would work.

I'm not saying that's the case, I'm just saying it seems like the title is misleading from what the actual study showed.

 

 

 


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kobra500
Thats bad!!! oh well never mind I hope it's not this bad in the UK i am pretty sure I've never had that happen to me but who knows... 48% and thats assuming every1 was telling thetruth (which i doubt ALOT)

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Liam_CF
Woah, that's pretty bad. Your doctor should just be honest with you, not just try to shut you up. They could be damaging your health.

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strange-garden
I was given placebo anti-depressants. I called the doctor 2 weeks into it and told him they weren't working, and he said to wait 3 weeks...On the 3 1/2 week I went to hospital from panic attacks. The pills were supposed to help the panic attacks.



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