Sure you could do without the pill shaped placebo, but where would be fun in that? According to a Times article the effect of just telling patients they would be getting painkillers induced them to create endorphins naturally. The question arises in the ethics of doctors manipulating natural psychological behaviors in an attempt to help patients with no other options.
A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found about a fourth of 466 faculty physicians surveyed prescribed placebos in the last year alone. This follows in the wake of a previous finding that terminally ill patients believe their doctors can’t empathetically relate to their suffering. No one really knows how it feels to be in a worst case scenario until they face it themselves. So without actually knowing, you can listen, and just try to be more mindful of their position. Why then in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in a standardized test for patient satisfaction found a strong relation between lousy doctor communication and poor medical outcomes. Empathy requires listening, nothing out of the general job description of being a doctor. Isn’t it?
So does this mean that doctors who don’t listen prescribe placebos more since they can’t understand their patient’s perspective? Without knowing each individual’s case details we can’t make such a conclusion, but the relation is still there.
On the side of the patient, they have to be clearer with their doctors of what they notice. Even when their condition is well known by both themselves and their doctors, they should keep the lines of communication open. If empathy is the only option, then it should be made clear that the placebo will not be in the form of a pill, but by open dialog.
