Placebo

“Placebos may also be procedures, diagnostic or therapeutic endeavors that the physician ‘knows’ bring no pharmacological benefit. By most definitions a placebo must be given by a physician who believes that the drug prescribed is ‘inactive’ by pharmacologic standards. This leaves us in the awkward position of claiming that a drug which is a placebo for one physician may not be for another. . . . One person’s placebo is another’s active agent (Spiro, 44). . . . The physician may give a placebo as (1) a gift to relieve pain or to treat a complaint that seems to have no objective explanation; (2) a challenge to prove that the patient is wrong (‘See, if a sugar pill has helped you, it is all in your mind!’); and finally (3) ransom to get rid of a demanding patient too difficult to deal with. Placebos benefit patients, regardless of the mood in which the doctor prescribes them – and that benefit is one of their wonders” (46).