BMJ  2004;329:927-928 (23 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7472.927

Editorial

Placebos in practice

Doctors use them, they work in some conditions, but we don't know how they work

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Placebo comes from the Latin for "I will please." Pleasing a patient would seem to be a good thing to do. Yet considerable controversy exists about the use of a biologically inert or irrelevant substance with therapeutic intent. Nitsan and Lichtenberg show in this issue (p 944) that placebos are often used in modern medicine.¹ Their survey of 89 doctors and nurses providing hospital based and ambulatory care in Israel found that 60% used placebos in their practice, most often (43%) to fend off an "unjustified" demand for medication, to calm a patient (38%), as an analgesic (38%), or, more problematically, as a diagnostic tool (28%). The paper makes it clear that the placebo pleases modern doctors. Should it? If the placebo effect is real, is it right to use it?

Most of medicine used placebos at one time. Medicine in the 20th century was supposed to end . . . [Full text of this article]

Stanford Medical Center, Stanford, CA 94305-5718, USA (dspiegel@stanford.edu)

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Articles

Placebos in medicine: Placebo use is well known, placebo effect is not

Toke S Barfod
BMJ 2005 330: 45. [Extract] [Full Text]

Placebos in medicine: Medical paradoxes need disentangling

Zelda Di Blasi and David Reilly
BMJ 2005 330: 45. [Extract] [Full Text]

Placebos in medicine: Is placebo analgesia always in the mind?

Peter K K Au-Yeung
BMJ 2005 330: 45. [Extract] [Full Text]

Placebos in medicine: Pain that is relieved by placebo is not therefore unreal

Nicholas D Moore
BMJ 2005 330: 45. [Extract] [Full Text]

Transparency and trust

Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2004 329: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Questionnaire survey on use of placebo

Uriel Nitzan and Pesach Lichtenberg
BMJ 2004 329: 944-946. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Barfod, T. S (2005). Placebos in medicine: Placebo use is well known, placebo effect is not. BMJ 330: 45-45 [Full text]  
• Di Blasi, Z., Reilly, D. (2005). Placebos in medicine: Medical paradoxes need disentangling. BMJ 330: 45-45 [Full text]  
• Au-Yeung, P. K K (2005). Placebos in medicine: Is placebo analgesia always in the mind?. BMJ 330: 45-45 [Full text]  
• Moore, N. D (2005). Placebos in medicine: Pain that is relieved by placebo is not therefore unreal. BMJ 330: 45-45 [Full text]  
• (2004). Hit parade. BMJ 329: 1350-1350 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Placebo or effective therapetic relationship?

Amanda Connell
bmj.com, 22 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Beliefs in Practice

Christine Bundy
bmj.com, 22 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebo use is well known, placebo effect is not

Toke S. Barfod
bmj.com, 22 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebo explained: Consciousness causal to health.

Søren Ventegodt, et al.
bmj.com, 22 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebos in practice. Our point of view

Luis G. Del Sol - Padrón, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebos in pain

Nicholas D. Moore
bmj.com, 24 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebo Analgesia

Peter KK Au-Yeung
bmj.com, 25 Oct 2004 [Full text]

A biological mechanism for the placebo effect

Dylan Evans
bmj.com, 26 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Using a Placebo may be unethical

David Brookman
bmj.com, 27 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebos in Practice and Research: Disentangling Medical Paradoxes

Zelda Di Blasi, et al.
bmj.com, 28 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Placebos in practice: conscious and unconscious use

Magi Farre, et al.
bmj.com, 31 Oct 2004 [Full text]

Undocumented editorial on placebos

Peter C Gøtzsche, et al.
bmj.com, 5 Nov 2004 [Full text]

Homeopathy?

Alfred P J Lake
bmj.com, 5 Nov 2004 [Full text]

Re: Placebos in practice: conscious and unconscious use

Peter KK Au-Yeung
bmj.com, 6 Nov 2004 [Full text]

Placebo is effective and it differs from sham drugs or "inadrugs"

Markku Partinen
bmj.com, 17 Nov 2004 [Full text]