50 Percent of U.S. Doctors Secretly Dose Their Patients—With the Placebo Effect

About half of surveyed U.S. doctors say they regularly prescribe placebos without their patients knowledge, and most admit to no qualms about handing out vitamins, aspirin, and other benign pills that have little relevance to the symptoms their patients complain of, according to a new study. Several medical ethicists say they're troubled by the results, including study coauthor Franklin Miller: "This is the doctor-patient relationship, and our expectations about being truthful about what's going on and about getting informed consent should give us pause about deception" [The New York Times].

Study coauthor John Tilburt says these findings are a reflection of the modern mentality that for every symptom you may experience, there's a pill to make it all better…. "Doctors feel pressured to prescribe something in order to show the patient that they are taking their symptoms seriously and trying to do something about it, so they try to find creative ways to make patients feel better, and will use any tool available, including psychological benefits" [ABC News].
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