In all good faith, the Marketletter published a news item based on what appeared to be a comprehensive report from a usually very reliable source, in the September 29 issue, that the US Food and Drug Administration had approved placebo for prescription use, and that AstraZeneca was shortly to launch a branded placebo product. We now understand that this was a hoax, and we unreservedly apologize to all our readers, and to AstraZeneca, for any confusion and embarrassment this may have caused.
[ 05-17-2010, 10:08 PM: Message edited by: Al ]
Posts: 789 | From CT, | Registered: Jun 2006
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Are you sure this is true? What site did you read this on?
The only site I could find mention of this on was "The Onion", which is a comedy site that has "fake news" for laughs.
Posts: 89 | From U.S. | Registered: Apr 2010
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Al - where's the link where you saw that? That will tell us a lot about if this is a prank.
Even if true, probably, it would contain aspartame, MSG, gluten and all sorts of dyes and additives so that those who had reactions of aspartame poisoning, etc. would be labeled cuckoo. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
We now understand that this was a hoax, and we unreservedly apologize to all our readers, and to AstraZeneca, for any confusion and embarrassment this may have caused.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
-I was looking around the web while treepatrol solves the question. While this particular ad campaign does appear to be a joke (from 2003), it still intentionally disparages patients - a common theme in medicine today.
And, placebo pills are already out there. Have been for years. It's not the placebo itself but the ad that seems a joke. A seven-year old joke that has new life spawned from last week's news articles.
See the last entry below from the Boston Globe - written this past week - doctors are looking to use Placebo more often.
From the hoax - but a sad look at how they think about patients:
A study of Danish general practitioners found that 48% had prescribed a placebo at least 10 times in the past year.[3]
** The most frequently prescribed placebos were antibiotics for viral infections, and vitamins for fatigue. **
Specialists and hospital-based physicians reported much lower rates of placebo use.
A 2004 study in the British Medical Journal of physicians in Israel found that 60% used placebos in their medical practice, most commonly to "fend off" requests for unjustified medications or to calm a patient.[101] . . . .
. . . About 25% of physicians in both the Danish and Israeli studies used placebos as a diagnostic tool to determine if a patient's symptoms were real, or if the patient was malingering. Both the critics and defenders of the medical use of placebos agreed that this was unethical.
The British Medical Journal editorial said, "That a patient gets pain relief from a placebo does not imply that the pain is not real or organic in origin...the use of the placebo for 'diagnosis' of whether or not pain is real is misguided."
. . .
Depression
A meta-analysis in 1998 found that half of the effectiveness of anti-depressant medication is due to the placebo effect rather than the treatment itself.[120] A meta-analysis in 2008 found that 79% of depressed patients receiving placebo remained well compared to 93% of those receiving antidepressants for the effect of placebos[clarification needed] (for 12 weeks after an initial 6-8 weeks of successful therapy).[121]
Another meta-analysis in 2002 found a 30% reduction in suicide and attempted suicide in the placebo groups compared to a 40% reduction in the treated groups.[122][
A 2002 article in The Washington Post titled "Against Depression, a Sugar Pill Is Hard to Beat" summarized research as follows: "In the majority of trials conducted by drug companies in recent decades, sugar pills have done as well as -- or better than -- antidepressants.
Companies have had to conduct numerous trials to get two that show a positive result, which is the Food and Drug Administration's minimum for approval. The makers of Prozac had to run five trials to obtain two that were positive, and the makers of Paxil and Zoloft had to run even more''.[34]
. . .
NOCEBO
In the opposite effect, a patient who disbelieves in a treatment may experience a worsening of symptoms. This effect, now called by analogy nocebo (Latin nocebo = "I shall harm") can be measured in the same way as the placebo effect, e.g., when members of a control group receiving an inert substance report a worsening of symptoms.
The recipients of the inert substance may nullify the placebo effect intended by simply having a negative attitude towards the effectiveness of the substance prescribed, which often leads to a nocebo effect, which is not caused by the substance, but due to other factors, such as the patient's mentality towards his or her ability to get well, or even purely coincidental worsening of symptoms.[97]
Startled by the power of placebos, doctors consider how to use them as real treatment
Excerpt''
. . . In February, an important paper was published in the British medical journal the Lancet, reviewing the discoveries about the placebo effect and cautiously probing its potential for use by doctors.
In December, the Michael J. Fox Foundation announced plans for two projects to study the promise of placebo in treating Parkinson's. Even the federal government has taken an interest, funding relevant research in recent years. . . .
. . . ``In the last 10 years we've made tremendous strides in demonstrating the biological veracity of the placebo effect,'' says Ted Kaptchuk, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and one of the coauthors of the Lancet article. . . . .
- Full four-page article at link above. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Hi, If they do this they could send people in horrible state. You can`t just take someone off med. without weaning can give person heart attack Or kill them just can`t go to placebo if on certain meds for awhile. Think lot lawsuits opens up for. Also many very ill people if you do not tel them. Think would be totally illegal in short... Huggggsssss, All in Need/ will if you got placebo.Hmmmmmmm????? Big Time
Posts: 746 | From Clearwater/fl/Pinellas | Registered: Jun 2003
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
Placebos actually work, though. I don't remember the percentage - but it's fairly high. Maybe as much or more than the actual drug...
I'd have to look up the data.
I guess the drug companies want to cash in on that, too (wink)...
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
I'm just curious - if a doctor prescribes a placebo, how can the patient be charged the copay for the medicine they think they are getting?
Seems wrong to me.
What seems really wrong is that someone taking a placebo may think that their medicine is not working and proceed to lose even more hope for some relief or a cure.
-------------------- Take care -kelly --------------- Posts: 330 | From TX | Registered: Mar 2009
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sparkle7
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posted
This whole thing is a joke... it's not real.
It's from an old article in "The Onion" - a satire newspaper similar to Mad magazine...
Have a laugh - please...
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
New Study Confirms Humans Only Use 10% Of Genitalia MAY 18, 2010 | ISSUE 46*20
BOSTON--A surprising new study published in The New England Journal Of Medicine this week has revealed that human beings only use 10 percent of their genitalia at any given time.
"To think of all that we could accomplish if we just unlocked the remaining 90 percent," said Dr. Howard Schwartz, who contributed to the sex-organ capacity study.
"Why, the back shaft alone could represent a vast reservoir of untapped potential. It's frightening, but we, as a species, have barely scratched the surface of our genitals."
Schwartz maintained, however, that with enough time and late-night exploration, human beings could someday live up to "the promise of their junk."
---
OK?
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
Read what I wrote in Bold its a HOAX
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
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