Yeah, but do they charge full price?

I must say this surprised me. A new survey shows that about half of American doctors say they regularly give patients placebo treatments — usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition. Also found is that many of the doctors aren't honest with the patient about what they're doing. Well duh, doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of a placebo?

I type a lot of reports where the patient will have 15 or 20 medications and never once have I come across one that says placebo after it. It seems this might be a dangerously deceiving practice to me.

"It's a disturbing finding," said Franklin G. Miller, director of the research ethics program at the U.S. National Institutes Health and one of the study authors. "There is an element of deception here which is contrary to the principle of informed consent."

I'm not so much worried about the deception as I am about whether the doctor is charging regular price for these placebos. I'd be pissed if I found out I was paying regular price for something that didn't actually do anything.

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