Posted on 05/27/2008 12:18:47 AM PDT by neverdem
Jennifer Buettner was taking care of her young niece when the idea struck her. The child had a nagging case of hypochondria, and Ms. Buettner’s mother-in-law, a nurse, instructed her to give the girl a Motrin tablet.
“She told me it was the most benign thing I could give,” Ms. Buettner said. “I thought, why give her any drug? Why not give her a placebo?”
Studies have repeatedly shown that placebos can produce improvements for many problems like depression, pain and high blood pressure, and Ms. Buettner reasoned that she could harness the placebo effect to help her niece. She sent her husband to the drugstore to buy placebo pills. When he came back empty handed, she said, “It was one of those ‘aha!’ moments when everything just clicks.”
Ms. Buettner, 40, who lives in Severna Park, Md., with her husband, 7-month-old son and 22-month-old twins, envisioned a children’s placebo tablet that would empower parents to do something tangible for minor ills and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and other medicines.
With the help of her husband, Dennis, she founded a placebo company, and, without a hint of irony, named it Efficacy Brands. Its chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward, goes on sale on June 1 at the Efficacy Brands Web site. Bottles of 50 tablets will sell for $5.95. The Buettners have plans for a liquid version, too.
Because they contain no active...
--snip--
Dr. Geller, the bioethicist, agrees that parents should not deceive their children. But she added that a parent who truly believed in the power of the placebo was not really being deceptive. “In principle,” she said, “I don’t have a problem with the thoughtful use of placebo. The starting premise and your own belief about what you’re doing matters a lot.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How about just tell the kids to quit whining?
Ain't the same.
You gotta remember, the kid is relying on their faith in their parents, and all the placebo is doing is making a slightly more "official" version of a "kiss to make it all better".
I'll vouch for the efficacy of non-medicinal treatment for a lot of kid complaints. There were lots of times when my daughter was small, that she would have some complaint or another, and I'd tell her that "Daddy will make it alright", and that assurance, coupled with pretty much any action I would take, was enough to ease the pain.
Fix a broken bone? Of course not. But the usual kid's whining? Sure.
That said, dextrose is pretty benign as sugar goes.
Make sure it’s a time-released placebo.
Love your answer.
I can still remember how a hug and a kiss from my mom would make any skinned knee or bruise all better. Heck even today a warm blanket, cup of soup, and full TV remote access can make a cold 10X better.
That is exactly what a band aid over my two year old's navel did...stopped his tummy from hurting. Obviously he was not in any real distress, had he been, I would never risked a placebo.
That’s the ticket. Get ‘em used to taking drugs for every problem right off the bat.
10 year? ;^)
You don’t understand the kids these days! Work my job for about 1 month and you’d see. As kindergartners, they are already asking for headache medicine, and just about anything you can think of. Of course, I cannot give even a placebo without a doctor’s order, but try telling one of these kids that they have no order of any kind for me to give and I get a full tantrum, or they stand there and argue with me for about 30 minutes! I’ve never seen anything like this. It started about 3 years ago and is getting worse. What are parents doing these days? My kids never asked for any pain medicine, and sometimes at bedtime they’d tell me their throat was sore that day or that they had a headache. It was no big deal to them. They just didn’t complain.
Good point! If all that dextrose hits at once... SUGAR BUZZ!
Wait til the zero-tolerance goons find this stuff in a kid’s school bag, lol.
Wait ‘til the kiddies break open the caps and try to snort it! ~8-O
Nothing ever happened in my house that couldn’t be cured by a teaspoon of children’s Robittussin and a hot chocolate. Just sayin’.
This all hinges on the use of “hypochondria” and whether or not this child is really a hypochondriac or it is being used loosely to convey a point. Hypochondria is a real disorder, a somatoform disorder and what this child is feeling may very well be real.
If this child truly is a hypochondriac, as described in the DSM-IV-TR, then a placebo is likely going to be only a temporary solution, if that. When you are experiencing physical symptoms it is hard for anyone, and especially a child to believe there is nothing wrong with them. There could be any number of triggers or causes or none at all. Until the individual realizes for themselves their thoughts are not rational, all the dextrose tabs in the world aren’t going to help. It can be very stressful, life altering and debilitating to those who suffer from this disorder. If “hypochondriac” is being used loosely here, that is different, and this lady is just wanting to make some money from parents with spoiled children. If hypochondriac was intended as clinical then the whole premise is absurd and could possibly do as much harm as good.
You hit the nail on the head here.
What are parents doing these days? My kids never asked for any pain medicine ...
How many pharmaceutical commercials do they see on TV every day? Young parents have been taught that there’s a pill for everything. It’s no wonder their kids are the same way.
The strongest medicine in the world is telling your ‘sick’ son that yes, he can stay home from school. My son stood on his head after that. Complete ‘recovery’.
Hypochondria in children is usually defined as, “wants a day off from school”.
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