Is the wrong pill better than nothing?

Results of the survey conducted The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have shown that about half of American doctors regularly attribute vitamins or pills that do not affect the course of the disease to their patients instead of the necessary medications. Most of these doctors do not tell patients what they are actually taking. This practice completely contradicts the advice of the American Medical Association, which recommends that doctors tell patients about treatment methods.

Placebo is often used in clinical trials of new drugs. At the same time, many patients from the control group who take "dummy pills" begin to feel better, because they believe that medications will help them. The authors of a recent study even showed that a placebo under the guise of pain pills for $ 2.5 works better than the same pacifiers in a group of volunteers who were told that the pill costs only 10 cents.

The question arises, is it ethical to use such treatment in life? 62% of rheumatologists and therapists surveyed said that placebo treatment is acceptable. Half of the doctors who participated in the survey admitted that they prescribed a placebo several times a month. About 70% of them told patients about placebo allegorically, describing the prescribed pills as "potentially useful drugs that are not usually used for your disease," and only 5% of placebo treatment lovers called things by their proper names.

At the same time, the doctors were guided by the principle: it is better to do something than to do nothing at all. 41% of doctors usually used painkillers, 38% – vitamins, 13% – antibiotics, 13% – sedatives, 3% – salt injections, 2% – glucose (in fact, only the last two items can be attributed to placebo, the remaining groups of drugs cannot be considered pacifiers in any way).

The use of antibiotics, which were usually prescribed in the treatment of viral diseases, is particularly alarming in these figures. Antibiotics, as is known, do not cause the slightest harm to viruses, but contribute to the development of resistance to this drug in bacteria.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of "News of America"

24.10.2008