Posted on 05/27/2008 12:18:47 AM PDT by neverdem
Jennifer Buettner was taking care of her young niece when the idea struck her. The child had a nagging case of hypochondria, and Ms. Buettner’s mother-in-law, a nurse, instructed her to give the girl a Motrin tablet.
“She told me it was the most benign thing I could give,” Ms. Buettner said. “I thought, why give her any drug? Why not give her a placebo?”
Studies have repeatedly shown that placebos can produce improvements for many problems like depression, pain and high blood pressure, and Ms. Buettner reasoned that she could harness the placebo effect to help her niece. She sent her husband to the drugstore to buy placebo pills. When he came back empty handed, she said, “It was one of those ‘aha!’ moments when everything just clicks.”
Ms. Buettner, 40, who lives in Severna Park, Md., with her husband, 7-month-old son and 22-month-old twins, envisioned a children’s placebo tablet that would empower parents to do something tangible for minor ills and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and other medicines.
With the help of her husband, Dennis, she founded a placebo company, and, without a hint of irony, named it Efficacy Brands. Its chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward, goes on sale on June 1 at the Efficacy Brands Web site. Bottles of 50 tablets will sell for $5.95. The Buettners have plans for a liquid version, too.
Because they contain no active...
--snip--
Dr. Geller, the bioethicist, agrees that parents should not deceive their children. But she added that a parent who truly believed in the power of the placebo was not really being deceptive. “In principle,” she said, “I don’t have a problem with the thoughtful use of placebo. The starting premise and your own belief about what you’re doing matters a lot.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’d opt for the Extra Strength placebo (the 500 mg version) much better.
That was my thought exactly. Why get them started believing that there is a Pill for every Ill? This is the same mentality that sends swarms of Grief Counselors to school when a classmate is killed, teaching kids that (1) the government will always be there to make it all better; and (2) the way to make it all better is to scream, cry, and wallow.
Can’t speak to your situation, but hell, _I’d_ have a complete recovery if my kid had a good reason to stay home from a government school.
It’s similar to a tactic I took to help my son when he was afraid of monsters in his room. I told him that if he would clap they would go away. I don’t think monsters are really afraid of clapping, but he believed it and so, they went away!
susie
LOL love that! I’m going to remember it if I ever get grandkids!
susie
I taught 4th grade until recently. We had a HUGE problem with the kids always wanting to go to the nurse. It was sometimes a tough call because if you DON’T send them and they really were sick, you’re going to have an angry parent, but some of these kids (and not just one or two) want to go to the nurse every single day, and it’s usually for things that are difficult for the teacher to diagnose in the classroom. While I suppose the answer would be, “just send them” the reality is it’s disruptive to have them ask in the middle of a lesson and they miss whatever we’re working on. This is really going to be a hypochondriac nation in a few years!
susie
Stop making kids meds taste good. The only medicine I wanted to take was amoxicillin because it tasted like bubble gum. Now everything from children’s vitamins to cough syrup and baby aspirin tastes like candy. I faked many an illness to get out of school, but none to get a pill.
I actually cured that with my kids fairly easily. When they were home sick, they were not allowed to get out of bed, no TV, nothing fun. They were sick, they were in bed. They could read and that was it. They also were not allowed to do anything after school, including eating out, or whatever. It worked pretty well. They missed very few days of school.
susie
Many, many times we used an ice pack (a couple of ice cubes in a sandwich bag) to “treat” bumps and bruises, headaches, etc. Usually worked miracles.
This is my concern as well. That said, if the placebo is used judiciously (and very occasionally), it would be okay, I think.
It can’t be handed out like candy any more than handing out a real drug.
Wow. That’s sad!
Nice call. I’d agree on the whole, although severe depression does not respond to placebo (as any qualified psychiatrist will tell you).
But mainly it’s a way of not rearing your kid into yer average pillhead (you know, with dozens of bottles and strips in the night drawer - and there’s gazillions of them).
BTW I am new. Seems like a nice place.
Anyone ever heard Chris Rock’s “Robittussin” clip?
But the point is I don't think it's a good thing to encourage the idea that pills are a fix for every problem. That was my view as a kid in the '70s in spite of my father's conservative medical practices. It was the prevailing popular view in the '70s and I think it's even worse now especially in medicine. As an adult I know many more people who have had their minds and bodies trashed by doctors than by drug dealers. Particulary with psychotropic drug scrips which are all about "feel good" in a pill.
I agree with you.
Thanks. I’m pretty libertarian in my views about what people ought to be allowed to do. But I’m fairly blunt and puritan in my opinion about what is beneficial to do. Or put another way; what is wise to do.
Nope. Think I’ll look that up.
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