Useful links about placebos

 

Short analysis of the paper:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0058247

Basically: their definition of placebo is quite amazingly different from what is used elsewhere. Placebos are commonly thought of as a sugar pill or chalk tablet – a biologically inert substance which cannot directly treat the disorder it is offered for.

This paper decided that these were ‘pure placebos’ and that lots of other things were ‘impure placebos’, such as

“Positive suggestions

  • Nutritional supplements for conditions unlikely to benefit from this therapy (such as vitamin C for cancer)
  • Probiotics for diarrhea
  • Peppermint pills for pharyngitis
  • Antibiotics for suspected viral infections [5]
  • Sub-clinical doses of otherwise effective therapies [32]
  • Off-label uses of potentially effective therapies
  • Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM) whose effectiveness is not evidence-based [33][34]
  • Conventional medicine whose effectiveness is not evidence-based [35][36][37][38]
  • Diagnostic practices based on the patient’s request or to calm the patient such as
    • Non-essential physical examinations
    • Non-essential technical examinations of the patient (blood tests, X-rays)”

They are wrong; homeopathy or vitamin C for cancer ( their ‘non evidence based’ complementary medicine) is pure placebo, and it involves deception as well.

Whereas, clinical examination when someone has say mild symptoms of a cold does not involve deception. It may also not be very necessary either, but if it is done with discretion in order to reassure a patient that they were correct about the origin of their illness, and that they do not have, say,  a chest infection, and is not promised to do anything else, is not a ‘placebo’. It may be unnecessary; many things in medicine may be.  Whereas, someone who sets up a private health screening clinic and offers ‘whole body check ups’ which will somehow promise better health, this is deception, because the promise is not  based in evidence.

Similarly, positive suggestion is evidence based in some circumstances, for example, if a group of patients are given exercise to do for health, only the group told that it will help with self esteem will report this benefit.

The literature on antibiotics for viral infections, is in a post from Inside Health below – this is a whole other ball park. The question is not about antibiotics in viral infections, it is about the role of antibiotics in upper respiratory infections full stop – they don’t really work, basically. This isn’t about GPs prescribing antibiotics, but about an antibiotic prescribing culture.

This paper does not show that placebos are being given out in quantity by GPs. It may show that GPs who prescribe homoeopathy accept that it is a placebo. Other than that, I can ‘t quite understand how it’s attracted so much attention.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015591

http://www.hta.ac.uk/execsumm/summ1019.htm

 

Chapter 16  The unseen benefits of professional healthcare

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