- Revenue Cycle Management
- COVID-19
- Reimbursement
- Diabetes Awareness Month
- Risk Management
- Patient Retention
- Staffing
- Medical Economics® 100th Anniversary
- Coding and documentation
- Business of Endocrinology
- Telehealth
- Physicians Financial News
- Cybersecurity
- Cardiovascular Clinical Consult
- Locum Tenens, brought to you by LocumLife®
- Weight Management
- Business of Women's Health
- Practice Efficiency
- Finance and Wealth
- EHRs
- Remote Patient Monitoring
- Sponsored Webinars
- Medical Technology
- Billing and collections
- Acute Pain Management
- Exclusive Content
- Value-based Care
- Business of Pediatrics
- Concierge Medicine 2.0 by Castle Connolly Private Health Partners
- Practice Growth
- Concierge Medicine
- Business of Cardiology
- Implementing the Topcon Ocular Telehealth Platform
- Malpractice
- Influenza
- Sexual Health
- Chronic Conditions
- Technology
- Legal and Policy
- Money
- Opinion
- Vaccines
- Practice Management
- Patient Relations
- Careers
Survey: More than half of docs use placebos
More than half of U.S. internal medicine physicians and rheumatologists who responded to a survey by the British Medical Journal report using a placebo treatment with patients.
More than half of U.S. internal medicine physicians and rheumatologists who responded to a survey by the British Medical Journal report using a placebo treatment with patients, and most believed it to be an ethical practice.
Defined as "a treatment whose benefits derive from positive patient expectations and not from the physiological mechanism of the treatment itself," placebos were used on a regular basis by 48 percent to 58 percent of the 679 physicians who responded to the survey, while 62 percent approved of their use.
Most physicians report over-the-counter analgesics and vitamins as their most frequently prescribed placebos, while 13 percent have prescribed antibiotics or sedatives.
"Face it, many patients believe they need to take something to feel better," Scherger writes. "Best to give them something innocent and supportive of the sense that they will recover. Healing happens fast that way."
