Sat in the waiting room feeling dreadful and queasy, hoping the Doctor calls your name next. Hoping again that whatever they give you will take away the illness, you'll take anything if it means you'll feel better in the end. After you were prescribed the medication you take it religiously for as long as the Doctor said and as you start to feel better you go to the Doctors again, just to find out the pill you have been taking is, in fact, a sugar pill. It holds no real medication or antibiotic however your illness has gone. This is known as the placebo effect.
The placebo effect is known worldwide. It occurs when a patient's symptoms are relieved due to them believing that the medication they were given worked. It is an interesting part of …show more content…
As well as negative side effects it can also lead generally healthy people to believe they are ill and need long term medication. This negative response is known as the nocebo effect.
This still leaves us with the question of who decides to give real medicine or a placebo therapy? Research has found that almost 97 percent of GPs have handed out placebos. "Most family doctors have given a placebo to at least one of their patients", BCC news stated. This was part of a survey taken in the UK on GPs, during this placebo were divided into two categories; Pure placebos - treatment containing no active drug, and impure placebos - treatment containing an active drug, although not the correct treatment such as antibiotics for the …show more content…
Meaning the decision of whether or not placebos can or should be used lies with the individual GP. This proves that a wide area of health workers do in fact use placebos much more regularly than we would think and the power to use this lies with them and we could be given one on our next trip to the Doctors, without even knowing it. The arguments for and against the placebo have no definitive lines both views blur into the other. As explained a vast majority of doctors believe that placebos have positive health benefits and don't mind using them. However, these same Doctors stand to the belief that to lie to a patient is highly unethical. This particular issue is solved as it is possible to give a placebo without "actively lying" to a patient. The survey remains of great interest to many and it is clear that the placebo has many confusing loopholes that must be further discussed and categorised to truly gain a full understanding of the phenomenon that is the
The placebo effect is known worldwide. It occurs when a patient's symptoms are relieved due to them believing that the medication they were given worked. It is an interesting part of …show more content…
As well as negative side effects it can also lead generally healthy people to believe they are ill and need long term medication. This negative response is known as the nocebo effect.
This still leaves us with the question of who decides to give real medicine or a placebo therapy? Research has found that almost 97 percent of GPs have handed out placebos. "Most family doctors have given a placebo to at least one of their patients", BCC news stated. This was part of a survey taken in the UK on GPs, during this placebo were divided into two categories; Pure placebos - treatment containing no active drug, and impure placebos - treatment containing an active drug, although not the correct treatment such as antibiotics for the …show more content…
Meaning the decision of whether or not placebos can or should be used lies with the individual GP. This proves that a wide area of health workers do in fact use placebos much more regularly than we would think and the power to use this lies with them and we could be given one on our next trip to the Doctors, without even knowing it. The arguments for and against the placebo have no definitive lines both views blur into the other. As explained a vast majority of doctors believe that placebos have positive health benefits and don't mind using them. However, these same Doctors stand to the belief that to lie to a patient is highly unethical. This particular issue is solved as it is possible to give a placebo without "actively lying" to a patient. The survey remains of great interest to many and it is clear that the placebo has many confusing loopholes that must be further discussed and categorised to truly gain a full understanding of the phenomenon that is the