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Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children
NY Times ^ | May 27, 2008 | CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN

Posted on 05/27/2008 12:18:47 AM PDT by neverdem

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To: neverdem

I’d opt for the Extra Strength placebo (the 500 mg version) much better.


21 posted on 05/27/2008 4:06:33 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: TigersEye

That was my thought exactly. Why get them started believing that there is a Pill for every Ill? This is the same mentality that sends swarms of Grief Counselors to school when a classmate is killed, teaching kids that (1) the government will always be there to make it all better; and (2) the way to make it all better is to scream, cry, and wallow.


22 posted on 05/27/2008 4:43:41 AM PDT by Appleby
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To: sportutegrl

Can’t speak to your situation, but hell, _I’d_ have a complete recovery if my kid had a good reason to stay home from a government school.


23 posted on 05/27/2008 4:57:46 AM PDT by MIT-Elephant ("Armed with what? Spitballs?")
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To: neverdem
I have always preferred the Chips Ahoy brand of placebos. I've attempted to end it all with them and a half gallon of milk...on occasion. Photobucket
24 posted on 05/27/2008 5:01:26 AM PDT by RouxStir (No peein' allowed in thee gene pool.)
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To: dayglored

It’s similar to a tactic I took to help my son when he was afraid of monsters in his room. I told him that if he would clap they would go away. I don’t think monsters are really afraid of clapping, but he believed it and so, they went away!

susie


25 posted on 05/27/2008 5:26:02 AM PDT by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: yoe

LOL love that! I’m going to remember it if I ever get grandkids!
susie


26 posted on 05/27/2008 5:27:15 AM PDT by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: Shery

I taught 4th grade until recently. We had a HUGE problem with the kids always wanting to go to the nurse. It was sometimes a tough call because if you DON’T send them and they really were sick, you’re going to have an angry parent, but some of these kids (and not just one or two) want to go to the nurse every single day, and it’s usually for things that are difficult for the teacher to diagnose in the classroom. While I suppose the answer would be, “just send them” the reality is it’s disruptive to have them ask in the middle of a lesson and they miss whatever we’re working on. This is really going to be a hypochondriac nation in a few years!

susie


27 posted on 05/27/2008 5:30:04 AM PDT by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: neverdem

Stop making kids meds taste good. The only medicine I wanted to take was amoxicillin because it tasted like bubble gum. Now everything from children’s vitamins to cough syrup and baby aspirin tastes like candy. I faked many an illness to get out of school, but none to get a pill.


28 posted on 05/27/2008 5:30:10 AM PDT by Hoodlum91 (I support global warming.)
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To: sportutegrl

I actually cured that with my kids fairly easily. When they were home sick, they were not allowed to get out of bed, no TV, nothing fun. They were sick, they were in bed. They could read and that was it. They also were not allowed to do anything after school, including eating out, or whatever. It worked pretty well. They missed very few days of school.

susie


29 posted on 05/27/2008 5:34:05 AM PDT by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: dayglored

Many, many times we used an ice pack (a couple of ice cubes in a sandwich bag) to “treat” bumps and bruises, headaches, etc. Usually worked miracles.


30 posted on 05/27/2008 5:43:42 AM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: TigersEye

This is my concern as well. That said, if the placebo is used judiciously (and very occasionally), it would be okay, I think.

It can’t be handed out like candy any more than handing out a real drug.


31 posted on 05/27/2008 5:46:25 AM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: Shery

Wow. That’s sad!


32 posted on 05/27/2008 5:46:53 AM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: neverdem

Nice call. I’d agree on the whole, although severe depression does not respond to placebo (as any qualified psychiatrist will tell you).
But mainly it’s a way of not rearing your kid into yer average pillhead (you know, with dozens of bottles and strips in the night drawer - and there’s gazillions of them).
BTW I am new. Seems like a nice place.


33 posted on 05/27/2008 6:30:26 AM PDT by Apollo 13
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To: Hi Heels

Anyone ever heard Chris Rock’s “Robittussin” clip?


34 posted on 05/27/2008 7:47:48 AM PDT by RockinRight (Supreme Court Justice Fred Thompson. The next best place for Fred.)
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To: Appleby; fightinJAG
I may be rather biased. I am a family doctor's son and an herbalist myself. I picked up from him the view that medicine is serious business and neither he nor I take or recommend taking anything unless absolutely necessary. In his case that is past tense since he has been gone since '86. I also have a lot of experience from my wasted youth with using drugs for fun. It's great fun until someone crashes and burns.

But the point is I don't think it's a good thing to encourage the idea that pills are a fix for every problem. That was my view as a kid in the '70s in spite of my father's conservative medical practices. It was the prevailing popular view in the '70s and I think it's even worse now especially in medicine. As an adult I know many more people who have had their minds and bodies trashed by doctors than by drug dealers. Particulary with psychotropic drug scrips which are all about "feel good" in a pill.

35 posted on 05/27/2008 12:49:10 PM PDT by TigersEye (Berlin 1936. Olympics for murdering regimes. Beijing 2008.)
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To: TigersEye

I agree with you.


36 posted on 05/27/2008 4:54:22 PM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: fightinJAG

Thanks. I’m pretty libertarian in my views about what people ought to be allowed to do. But I’m fairly blunt and puritan in my opinion about what is beneficial to do. Or put another way; what is wise to do.


37 posted on 05/27/2008 5:57:27 PM PDT by TigersEye (Berlin 1936. Olympics for murdering regimes. Beijing 2008.)
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To: RockinRight

Nope. Think I’ll look that up.


38 posted on 05/31/2008 12:05:07 AM PDT by Hi Heels (I want Monica Lewinsky's ex boyfriend's fat butt wife for president!)
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