Reply #10: Well, Dr. Brown appears to disagree with this concept:

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Dr. Brown is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Brown University Program in Medicine, Providence, R. I., and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.

Harnessing the Placebo Effect

MIROSLAV BACKONJA, WALTER A. BROWN
Brown University

Words as Placebos:

...I believe that there are circumstances under which physicians should encourage the use of alternative treatments. Physicians who find that advice disturbing should remember that the disorders for which conventional medicine offers definitive, powerful treatment represent a minority of the afflictions that beset humanity...

With many chronic conditions, conventional treatments are incompletely efficacious and often have significant side effects. Those are the conditions for which people tend to seek alternative medicine. To my mind, the theories underlying many forms of alternative medicine are unconvincing, at best. Nevertheless, in many instances, the use of alternative medicine makes sense...

On the other hand, physicians who understand the placebo effect can minimize patient defections to alternative medicine...At times, encouragement may be at odds with informed consent...Given what we know about the placebo effect, one could speculate that assuring the patient that the outcome will be good may reduce the patient's stress level. This, in turn, may lead to a more stable physiologic state that enhances the likelihood of a good outcome. In short, reassurance may be medically indicated in such cases....When offering reassurance, the physician needs to appreciate and accommodate differences among patients...Part of the art of medicine is to gauge the degree of information and independence appropriate for each patient.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x5656


Prescribing Placebos:

Should clinicians deliberately prescribe a placebo to patients? Many experts consider this an impossible dilemma. If the patient is told that the prescription is for a placebo, the patient's expectation of an effective remedy will be destroyed--and with it, the placebo response. If the placebo is presented as a pharmacologically active medication, the patient will be deceived. I believe the solution to that dilemma lies in a different view of placebos. If placebos are regarded as similar to other conventional medications in several respects--i.e., they are broadly effective remedies with incompletely understood mechanisms of action, and have both indications and contraindications--they can be offered honestly and plausibly.

The server is currently down. If you would like to read the entire article; Google: "Hospital Practice: The Placebo Effect" and click on the "Cached" link.