Is Obecalp a wonderdrug that should be supplied or do ethics stand in the way?

摘要

BEFORE you rush to your nearest BNF to look up Obecalp, it is merely the word "placebo" spelt backwards, and an item that is reported to have been ordered on prescriptions. Use of placebos hit the news last month. Headlines such as "Most family doctors have given a patient a placebo drug" were referring to a study published in PLOS One on the prescribing of placebos by doctors in the UK. This study found that 97 per cent of doctors surveyed said that they had prescribed an impure placebo (ie, a placebo that has pharmacological activity but not relevant to the patient's condition, such as antibiotics for a viral infection), and 12 per cent had prescribed a pure placebo (ie, a placebo with no active ingredient, such as sugar pills or saline injections).