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A fascinating new article in knowable magazine https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2017/rebranding-placebos
Indicates that a group of savvy scientists are looking at the potential for placebo as a front line therapy for a host of illnesses and conditions.
The article is rather long, but to summarize, placebo and its related effects are powerful. So powerful in fact that most medical therapies are only slightly more effective, while running the risk of serious side effects. Therefore the scientists pose the questions. Why not use placebo as a front line therapy, a first line of defense in most cases?
But for this to work, placebo would need a rebrand.
The problem with the placebo effect is that it stops working once a person knows that they are receiving the placebo.
So here is a thought. What if instead of using the word "placebo", we make it ok for doctors to write initial prescriptions for monosaccharide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosaccharide and Dihydrogen Monoxide DHMO therapy https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/dhmo.htm and / or other fancy chemical names for the ingredients actually in these placebos. Then a simple updating of wikipedia pages showing their efficacy in treatment of various ailments along with their relative safety. In otherwords, since we are a society that places our faith in chemicals, why not just give the chemicals in the placebos their due and forget the word "placebo" all together?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @09:19PM
Sometimes people with random illnesses (say, a minor viral infection) come to a doctor and demand antibiotics.
Antibiotics have no effect on viral infections; they kill off unresistant bacteria. But because the bacteria don't always fully die from the antibiotics (especially when people stop taking them before the duration of the prescription has expired because their symptoms have gone away), the general population of bacteria in the wild become more resistant to specific antibiotics the more they're prescribed.
So sometimes doctors knowingly prescribe antibiotics that have been ineffective for decades.
Kills three birds with one stone: the patient is mollified, they get their placebo effect, and the still-viable antibiotics aren't weakened frivolously.
Fortunately for us, people are too stupid to Google.