HOW would you feel if you discovered that your doctor had been giving you sugar pills? Hoodwinked? Outraged? Or would you simply shrug in acceptance? After all, doctor knows best. The discovery might well affect your relationship with your doctor but it could also colour your opinion of the pharmacist who had supplied them to you. According to the results of a recent survey of GPs in the UK, 1 per cent used pure placebos (ie, a substance with no pharmacological action), and 77 per cent prescribed impure placebos (ie, a product with a pharmacological action but not one relevant to the patient's condition) at least once a week.
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