From White Coat Rants:
Lately a lot of patients have shown dramatic improvement in their pain symptoms with the placebo effect in our ED.
An issue some of our nurses have is that they have to get the patient to believe in the effectiveness of the placebo in order for it to work. If you give someone a shot and tell them that it is just some “saline,” you probably won’t get much of a response. If you give someone a shot of “obecalp” (which is placebo spelled backwards), and tell them that this is a medication for their pain that may make them sleepy, it might work. Therein lies the problem. How to you get the patient to buy into the placebo effect without lying to them? OK ….. shhhhhh. Can you keep a secret?
If a patient is looking for pain pills, hand them three regular Tylenol pills. If the patients ask what they are getting, they are told they are getting “Tylenol …. number three.” Not a lie. They really are getting three Tylenol pills. Good placebo effect. Probably half of the patients who get “Tylenol … number three” get significant relief with plain ol’ acetaminophen.
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