Placebo in the treatment of pain : is it considered deception?

Abstract

Placebo is a phenomenon that has been present throughout our history. Its main current function is to serve as a control in studies, however positive outcomes in these control groups especially when it comes to pain relief make one question if, in the upcoming future, such placebos can be considered as a treatment option. The main aim of the literature review was to examine such a statement while considering the main ethical difficulties such a prospect would present mainly when it comes to deception. This was accomplished by firstly determining what a placebo is, then analysing current research tackling placebo use in pain relief with regards to its effectiveness and, finally, determining what the ethical dilemmas could be. The main results of this analysis showed that a placebo is indeed effective when it comes to the treatment of pain but there are some limitations when such practices are put into effect in the clinical area. Although there are still some recommendations for future practice it is found that deception can in fact be avoided through the particular choice of wording the administrator uses. Moreover, recent studies show that a placebo has positive outcomes in a certain percentage of cases even when deception is not utilised – although more future studies are required to further verify this. As a conclusion, one can state that, although placebo use has a place in future clinical practice, certain guidelines need to be implemented before such use.