Placebos and Doctors: Would You Pay for Snake Oil?
Doctors are a trusted, respected member of society. Yet a new study shows that over half of doctors are dishonest with their patients. The use of placebo treatments is a serious problem in this critical time in medicine. It is an outrage.
It has been reported in the news recently that over 50% of doctors have admitted in an anonymous study that they prescribe placebos to patients that they cannot help.
A placebo is a pill, medication, or treatment that is given to a patient who believes that it will help them with the specific symptoms of their complaint. It is not trickery so much as convincing the mind that it has the solution at hand to get better. Placebos are not a bad thing as such – they are used in drug studies to determine the efficacy of drugs. The two tests groups are given a placebo or the medication. If the medication results are significantly better than the empty treatment, then the drug is said to be effective.
It is generally not acceptable ethics to give a patient a placebo without their knowledge. This practice of placebo treatment is frightening for a number of reasons:
1. Money
Doctors are paid a lot of money to examine patients and prescribe medications. With insurance premiums skyrocketing and more Americans without insurance, it is reprehensible to abuse the system handing out bogus treatments. How many x-rays do the insured pay for that are unnecessary? How many needless medications? The quantity of waste is unfathomable and irresponsible.
2. Trust
Physicians are among the most trusted of professions in this country. Who else can a patient go to and reveal the most intimate aspects of their lives? These men and women hold the lives of millions in their hands. Society at large demands that they will honestly assess a condition and do their best to find a solution. These doctors are not only violating the monetary ethics of medicine, they are violating the trust of society on the most basic of levels: survival.
3. Dismissal of the truly sick
It is easy to become jaded with patients. There are many difficult to deal with and difficult to treat people in the world. Some are addicted to drugs. Some want the attention and drama of being sick. There are some that even have mental disabilities that precluded easy and straight forward diagnosis.
But not every patient, not even most patients, fall into this category.
It would be so easy for a doctor to dismiss someone as difficult and not listen. They see so many people in a day. How much time do they have to make a diagnosis? Yet new diseases and treatments are being found every day. A person who is suffering from real pain may be dismissed as a drug seeking addict. Someone with symptoms that are atypical may be dismissed as a hypochondriac. Maybe the doctor doesn’t even know of the presenting disease. A placebo prescribed under these circumstances could be devastating to the life and treatment of the patient. It would add time before proper treatment and could lead to increased morbidity that could be avoided. This practice can only hurt people, not help.
4. Antibiotic resistance
One of the most used placebo treatments listed in the study was antibiotics. If a patient presents to a doctor with a cold or virus, antibiotics are not going to help them. There are no cures for these diseases. They run their course. But Americans don’t want to feel bad. It is expected that a doctor will provided a fix. That is what they are there for; that is why a patient seeks medical attention. To come away from an appointment with nothing is unsatisfying. No one wants to be told that there is nothing to be done. Patients want a cure now to go about their lives once again.
The problem with prescribing antibiotics is that the bacteria are evolving a resistance to the only weapons we have against them. Antibiotics are prescribed at an astonishing rate. Giving an antibiotic to a patient with a virus will only exacerbate this alarming trend with resistant bacteria. Doctors need to be careful with these drugs, not cavalier. The medical community at large is putting people at risk because there will come day when none of our medicines work anymore. That is a day that should be delayed at all costs.
5. Admitting they don’t know.
For anyone with such a vaunted societal position, the admission of ignorance is perhaps the most difficult thing to confront. A doctor who does not know isn’t a very good doctor. They are expected to be founts of knowledge. Unfortunately, they are human. They don’t know everything. However, some pretend to, and, instead of admitting the fact, they prescribe a placebo to hide their own shortcomings. The patient deserves to know that the doctor is unaware of a diagnosis. Only then can they seek out definite treatment and perhaps save their lives.
6. A helping profession
The medical field in general is considered a helping profession, and doctors represent the highest form of that. A doctor who cannot be honest with a patient, who abuses their power with needless treatments, and who dismisses patients out of frustration does not help the patient. Some patients cannot be helped by medicine, but they deserve an honest attempt.
In the end, this practice only hurts patients. Doctors in the study defended themselves by stating placebos are oftentimes the only way to help a patient. The fact is that patients do not deserve to be lied to. Even if symptoms disappear, people deserve to know their body and how the treatments will help them. The superior knowledge of doctors and the unquestioning trust of patients lead to a paternal relationship that could be dangerous. Doctors should not be treated as all-knowing gods, a status the profession has held for decades. They are a partner in a patient’s care. Placebo treatment violates that basic trust.
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