What do the experts say...

The following seven quotes are supportive to my thesis that doctors should not use placebos. They collaborate with my subtopics regarding the ethics of using them, the dangers of using them, the price issue and the fact that there are alternatives to their use.

In the health section of the Los Angeles Times it was published that "placebos treatments, as defined by the researchers and the doctors they surveyed, go well beyond the popular notion of placebo as a 'sugar pill'."

In the USA Today "Health and Behavior" section, studies show that "most doctors used actual medicines as a placebo treatment. 41% used painkillers, 38% used vitamins, 13% used antibotics, 13% used sedatives, 3% used saline injections and 2% used sugar pills."

Ebsco's article "Placebo Gives Brain Emotional Break" claims that "according to a new study of placebo-induced reduction of anxiety, such expectations trigger a decline in the brain's emotional responsiveness and marshal pain-numbing neural activity."

Dr. Howard Brody, a medical ethicist and family physician at the University of Texas agrees that it creates a dependance on drugs and causes "kids to grow up thinking that the only way to get better is by taking a pill..."
He then furthers his argument by saying "some doctors worry that giving children 'medicine' for every ache and pain teaches that every ailment has a cure in a bottle."

In a New York Times article, reporter Benedict Carey reflects on an experiment where two groups of people were given the same placebo, one more expensive than the other ($2.50, $0.10). He reported that "85% of those using the expensive pills reported significant pain relief, compared with 61% on the cheaper pills." This is an easy way for doctors and companies to make quick money.

From the American Medical Association handbook and website, there is a copy of the princples of medical ethics that all doctors must abide by. Some of them state that "a physician shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional interactions, and strive to report physicians deficient in character or competence, or engaging in fraud or deception, to appropriate entities...a physician shall, while caring for a patient, regard responsibiility to the patient as paramount...a physician shall...make relevant information available to patients, collegagues and the public..."

Doctors quote in the Chicago Tribune that "the harm comes when antibiotics are dispensed needlessly, heightening the risk that bacteria will develop antibiotic resistance, on of the most dangerous medical phenomenons of our time."