The use of placebo treatments in clinical practice has been widely criticised because it is claimed that the practice by its very nature is deceptive and therefore violates patients’ autonomy. But advocates of placebo treatments argue that they could offer effective treatment for many chronic conditions without necessarily deceiving patients. Despite the controversy, to date there has been little data on doctors’ attitudes towards and the use of placebo treatments in the US.” (Science Daily)
The only people bent out of shape by this are those unsophisticated physicians who can believe only in the concrete and materialistic explanations for how they ‘heal’. Most of medicine mobilizes patients’ healing resources through symbolism, ritual and enlistment into a belief system. That’s why I have such a hard time with the (equally concrete) critics of Western allopathic medicine. It is not that they offend me by not believing in what I do, but rather that they undermine the power of belief which is the basis of how physicians heal. In short, most treatment is probably mediated by the placebo response. Patients inherently give up their autonomy by consulting a health professional, and treatment will not work without an element of faith on their part.
Related
- The Placebo Effect Examined And Studied (Articles Base)
- When Doctors Prescribe Sham Medicines (Articles Base)
- Medicine’s Dirty Little Secret…: (Brothers Judd)
- Why Doesn’t My Doctor Know This? (barbarany)
- Are a Popular Doping Drugs Effects All in the Mind? (Scientific American)
