Placebo Effect and the Ethics Surrounding it

Ethan Cooper

Placebo Effect and the Ethics That Surround It

   In any given official experiment, a random assignment of people will be selected in order for the results not to be skewed. Moreover, the experiments will often be double-blind experiments, in which the conductor of the experiment as well as the one being experimented on does not know if they are being given a real pill or a placebo. This system causes impartiality and lack of bias. In experiments, there is a control group where every other factor expect one thing (the thing you are looking for) is carefully dealt with and factored. This leaves us with the independent variable, which is what is being manipulated, and the dependent variable, which is what is being measured.

   Now I would like to introduce the following story: My name is Tommy, and I am facing depression. I walk into a lab and I am given a respective pill in an experiment conducted to find out if the new anti-depressant medicine, the Makemehappy pill, is an effective form of treatment. The results I had were outstanding. I felt better than ever.      

     Tommy, the individual being treated, does not know he had been given a placebo pill. A placebo pill is essentially a pill that has no medicine in it, yet feels like, looks like, and has the same texture as the medicine being tested. Can we conclude that the pill Tommy is receiving is revolved around good morals and ethics? Is it really ethical to provide someone with a pill and have their own psychological feelings control their destiny.

    The placebo effect could be harnessed deliberately in patient care, and may eventually replace real treatment. According to a study at Finniss and colleagues, prescribing placebos was a common practice within the community of physicians surveyed, despite the potential adverse consequences for both patients’ and public health (for example, the development of resistant strains of bacteria if antibiotics are prescribed when they are not medically indicated). While no one would disagree that placebos should be exercised and tested in labs, the real debate comes in if their functionality should be commonplace in hospitals. Placebos are deceptive mechanisms in order to make a patient feel good. Certainly in hospitals there may be better solutions that tricking the patient into feeling fine. The mind clearly does have a powerful grip in controlling emotions and health.