Comments on: Survey: Half Of U.S. Doctors Give Placebos

Physicians Report Giving Vitamins Or Other Drugs They Know Won’t Help Without Telling Patients

[dragyn30]

This goes back to the "pink" medicine many of us got as a child when our parents took us to the doctor when we were sick no matter what we had - we always go the pink stuff. What I learned as an adult is that too much antibiotics not only harm your immune system but as a child resulted in poor quality teeth. Amoxicillin (the pink medicine)is a big culprit in poor quality teeth.

I was stupid with my first child until I found a Dr. who was honest enough to say my daughter really did not need an antibiotic as this would go away on its own and he''d mention OTC methods to help with symptoms, he would always offer a script if I wanted one or to have on hand if things changed over the course of a weekend when their office is closed.

I am fortunate to have family doctors who are honest about what treatment is the best. I always ask about medicines I or my family are given even when in the hospital and it is a nurse handing me pills - I tell them I will not take it unless they tell me what it is and what it is foras I have been given medicine that I had a known allergy to because they failed to read my chart!

When getting a new medicine they always start with samples so I do not get burned at the pharmacy if the medicine does not work and with drug allergies they are very careful with my family.

[lanntair-2009]

Part III:

After finally graduating residency, a substantial proportion of these doctors forego private practice to go into academic medicine. Why? To be able to cure and treat patients, often in underserved and uninsured populations, while passing along medical knowledge to younger aspiring doctors. Other residency graduates go into private practice, many in similar communities. After 25 years of education and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and before they buy a house, mind you, it should be no surprise that 75% of them (if that statistic is even accurate) consider compensation a factor in selecting a specialty.

This article is about doctors giving a "placebo" (although it is not actually a placebo) without patient knowledge, and this is certainly an unfortunate result of the often unrealistic demands of American consumers when it comes to healthcare. We tend to demand cutting edge treatments, at affordable prices, and we want it now. Some of us want it now even when there is no treatment, or even when there''s nothing wrong with us. So half of doctors say they have given placebos at one time or another, probably to make the worst of these people happy. Admittedly, this is a breach of informed consent.

[lanntair-2009]

Part II:

If she finally makes it into medical school (acceptance rates currently in the single digit percentages), she then perseveres through another four grueling and often demeaning years, incurring student debts that FREQUENTLY exceed a quarter of a million dollars.

Then, if she performed well enough in medical school, she gets to go get rich as a doctor, right? Wrong. Then she''s off to a residency program. Here is where she''ll spend from 3 (uncommon) to 5+ (most common) years, earning less than minimum wage (literally) while working twice the number of hours that define your American work week. And that, friends, was just recently LIMITED to an 80-hour week: it used to be more than that. What does she do during this time? Don''t watch Grey''s Anatomy for clues. Think instead about manually disimpacting a patient who is too constipated to eliminate because of the pain medication they''re on. Or try dressing the rotting foot wound of a non-compliant diabetic patient who isn''t getting enough circulation in his extremities to heal (but will go back to eating Twinkies as soon as he''s home). That''s what residents do. For $40K, for 4000 hours per year, for three to six years, or more.

[lanntair-2009]

Part I:

The real tragedy is the quickness of some Americans to criticize doctors for being arrogant and profit-driven based on poorly informed assumptions.

Here''s a typical doctor for you (and, no I am not a doctor, nor related to one). She took out loans to go to college, where she took much harder classes, studied far longer and earned better grades than most other students. At the same time, she contributed hundreds of hours as a volunteer in clinics, disease awareness campaigns and hospitals, and shadowed other physicians so she could begin to learn what it meant to provide healthcare to people. She was also conducting independent research for no pay and often no college credit. (Sidebar: this is a 19 or 20 year old at this point, what were you doing when you were that age?)

As she''s taking final exams in her junior year, she applies to about a dozen or more medical schools, a process that requires preparing for the hardest professional aptitude exam there is, and traveling to multiple interviews all over the country, at a cost of thousands of dollars, again paid by her or her family, most often through loans. If she doesn''t get in, she will typically spend the next year strengthening her application by doing more research and volunteering, then going through the application process again.

[dragyn30]

This goes back to the "pink" medicine many of us got as a child when our parents took us to the doctor when we were sick no matter what we had - we always go the pink stuff. What I learned as an adult is that too much antibiotics not only harm your immune system but as a child resulted in poor quality teeth. Amoxicillin (the pink medicine)is a big culprit in poor quality teeth.

I was stupid with my first child until I found a Dr. who was honest enough to say my daughter really did not need an antibiotic as this would go away on its own and he''d mention OTC methods to help with symptoms, he would always offer a script if I wanted one or to have on hand if things changed over the course of a weekend when their office is closed.

I am fortunate to have family doctors who are honest about what treatment is the best. I always ask about medicines I or my family are given even when in the hospital and it is a nurse handing me pills - I tell them I will not take it unless they tell me what it is and what it is foras I have been given medicine that I had a known allergy to because they failed to read my chart!

When getting a new medicine they always start with samples so I do not get burned at the pharmacy if the medicine does not work and with drug allergies they are very careful with my family.

[dragyn30]

This goes back to the "pink" medicine many of us got as a child when our parents took us to the doctor when we were sick no matter what we had - we always go the pink stuff. What I learned as an adult is that too much antibiotics not only harm your immune system but as a child resulted in poor quality teeth. Amoxicillin (the pink medicine)is a big culprit in poor quality teeth.

I was stupid with my first child until I found a Dr. who was honest enough to say my daughter really did not need an antibiotic as this would go away on its own and he''d mention OTC methods to help with symptoms, he would always offer a script if I wanted one or to have on hand if things changed over the course of a weekend when their office is closed.

I am fortunate to have family doctors who are honest about what treatment is the best. I always ask about medicines I or my family are given even when in the hospital and it is a nurse handing me pills - I tell them I will not take it unless they tell me what it is and what it is foras I have been given medicine that I had a known allergy to because they failed to read my chart!

When getting a new medicine they always start with samples so I do not get burned at the pharmacy if the medicine does not work and with drug allergies they are very careful with my family.

[linfinster]

".... Try working for 36 hours straight 1-2 times a week for several years, and deal the demanding patients all the while trying not to get sued. Its a tough job and the American public does not make it any easire... "

Posted by ender18 at 12:58 PM : Oct 24, 2008

YES! That is a BIG, HUGE problem ... the thought of anyone caring for the health and well being after working THAT long is disgusting! It should be illegal and considered GROSS NEGLIGENCE! I cannot understand how we allow that to happen in this day and age.

[yongamerica]

Anger against Physicians? More like anger against the AMA. The AMA allows physicians to practice medicine during a 36 hour shift. What an asinine kind of policy is that? Then there is the greed factor. At least 75% of physicians chose their career for the money And that''s why so few are going into general practice; because practicing specialized medicine can increase their pay by more than 50%. And this focus on money shows in many doctors poor attitudes and this contributes to their exorbitant amount of mistakes they make. Doctors get "disciplined" when in any other career they''d be fired. And the AMA protects these doctors, that is the worse part of it. Talk about a Guild or Union protecting its ideas of how medicine should be practiced.

[darkfyreaol]

Oh. And when buying controlled substances like narcotics or tranquilizers, always count the pills at the counter, or ask the pharmacist to count them for you. I was shorted about half my prescription - Vicodin - by about 9 pills (enough to knock out an elephant)..I called my pharmacist, and they heatedly denied miscounting, having done so three times with someone standing by, watching..i called my doctor, and they told me that I wouldn''t need that many anyway, just take Motrin... Yeah, they don''t fight the pharmacies.

[darkfyreaol]

Here''s something you should always consider: For each prescription, always, ALWAYS do your research. Check online databases for the drug you''re about to purchase.