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More than 95% of doctors prescribe a placebo instead of a cure
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
People are used to blindly trusting their doctors and sometimes do not even pay attention to what medications are recommended for treatment. Researchers from the UK have published interesting and completely unexpected data: it turns out that about 95% of British doctors occasionally prescribe placebos instead of medications to their patients. At the moment, specialists are interested in the reason for choosing treatment with "placebos".
Placebos are completely harmless drugs, but at the same time, they do not bring any health benefits to the patient. Doctors in the UK reported that in 10-12% of cases they prescribed patients lactose tablets, sugar tablets or injections of saline.
The effect after taking such "medicinal" drugs is based only on the blind and pure faith of the patient in the power of medicine. Experts from the University of Oxford surveyed about 800 attending physicians who examine more than 100 patients weekly. The results of the survey showed that every tenth doctor at least several times, during their entire professional career, prescribed a placebo to a patient. According to surveys, every hundredth British doctor prescribes a placebo to their patients at least once a week.
One of the study's leaders is confident that such actions are not carried out by doctors in order to somehow deceive patients or support placebo manufacturers. Many modern UK specialists are of the opinion that such drugs can actually help patients and doctors actively use placebo, being confident in the benefits of the prescribed medicine.
Most doctors who prescribe placebos to patients allow the patients to use such drugs on a regular basis. Doctors prescribe placebos to ease the suffering of patients, thinking about the psychological healing effect that occurs after taking a dummy drug. Doctors believe that self-hypnosis in some cases can be more effective than real drugs.
Read also: Placebo and Nocebo in the Treatment of Back Pain
A placebo is a drug that does not have pronounced medicinal properties, but which is used as a medicine. The effect of the drug is directly related to self-hypnosis and the blind faith of the patient in its ability to help in the treatment of the disease. Lactose, sugar, glucose or saline are often used as the main substance in a placebo. Many experts are inclined to believe that placebo should be used to treat chronic diseases. They believe that with the help of placebo drugs it is possible to determine whether the disease is psychosomatic in nature.
Experts around the world have not yet been able to come to any definite consensus regarding placebo. On the one hand, such drugs cannot cause harm to the patient. On the other hand, treatment with placebo alone cannot be called effective and, in the absence of the necessary drugs, can cause complications of diseases. The most progressive is the opinion of some modern doctors who are sure that placebo should be used only in combination with traditional drugs.
The degree of the placebo effect depends on the disease, the suggestibility of the person, and the drug. Experts have noted that the more difficult it is to obtain a drug and the higher its price, the more effective the "treatment" will be. At the subconscious level, people are sure that a drug that is not generally available cannot be absolutely useless.