BMJ  2008;336:1020 (3 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39564.454502.C2

Views & Reviews

The thinking doctor’s guide to placebos

¹ Department of Reproductive and Sexual Health Care, Town Clinic, Enfield, Middlesex, ² Eagle House Surgery, Ponders End, Enfield

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

Discussion of the planned use on patients of the placebo effect is long overdue. For many years it has been medicine’s "dirty little secret." Clinicians have found it to be an embarrassment that needs to be factored in when planning randomised controlled trials. Ethically its use has always been considered dubious. Recent high profile publications suggesting the lack of efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in mild to moderate depressive illness have shown that clinicians routinely make use of the placebo effect—but from a position of ignorance rather than intention.¹

Whatever one’s ethical stance, this state of affairs cannot be a good thing for our patients, our relationship with our patients, or the public purse. We outline a third way whereby clinicians can use the placebo knowingly yet still stay within the ethical constraints of modern medical practice.

Drugs given to conscious patients have at least three effects: one . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Woodhead, N. J (2008). Placebolotherapy. BMJ 336: 1087-1087 [Full text]  
• Linden, D. E (2008). Implementing placebo. BMJ 336: 1087-1087 [Full text]  

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