Pour Some Sugar?
A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but is sugar ready to work as medicine on its own? The New York Times recently featured a mom who started a company to market a new pill called Obecalp. It’s “placebo” spelled backwards. And maybe it’s just what the doctor would order.
She’s a mom with a story we know well. She was taking care of her niece, who was complaining of pain. Suspecting hypochondria, she just needed something that would seem to help ease the pain. And the idea struck her for a placebo pill for kids…cherry-flavored sugar pills that taste enough like medicine to let kids think they’re getting something to make them feel better. A bottle of 50 Obecalp tablets costs just under $6.
The good news is, they can ease kids’ minds, which is probably where most of the pain is. And they don’t have the side effects or concerns that come with standard over the counter medicines. (Your dentist may have a different set of concerns.) But would you use it? Have you ever tried just passing off candy to see if the placebo effect would work? Do you think we’re just setting up our kids to join the overmedicated ranks of adulthood? Let us know your thoughts.
--Daniel Halperin, Health Producer
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The world is overmedicated. Usually I write with a sense of humor, but this is such a serious subject. I have 5 children who range in age from 7 to 23. I've always been cautious about dispensing medicine and too many people medicate for no reason.
I have had two very painful knee surgeries in the past 6 months....totally reconstructing my knee and leg post accident. I was given so many drugs after each surgery I am not sure how I was expected to function. Percoset, Valium, Vicodan and pure time released Morphine. I took none of it and used ice, heat and labor breathing. Plenty of experience. I am a single mom and how on earth would I function? Sleeping helped while they were in school. The funny thing is, the one drug I REALLY needed for nerve damage was denied by Blue Cross....but I could get all the morphine I wanted?!?!?!
Children are precious....how about that old spoonful of sugar...without the medicine?
http://dailyblonde.blogspot.com
The world is overmedicated. Usually I write with a sense of humor, but this is such a serious subject. I have 5 children who range in age from 7 to 23. I've always been cautious about dispensing medicine and too many people medicate for no reason.
I have had two very painful knee surgeries in the past 6 months....totally reconstructing my knee and leg post accident. I was given so many drugs after each surgery I am not sure how I was expected to function. Percoset, Valium, Vicodan and pure time released Morphine. I took none of it and used ice, heat and labor breathing. Plenty of experience. I am a single mom and how on earth would I function? Sleeping helped while they were in school. The funny thing is, the one drug I REALLY needed for nerve damage was denied by Blue Cross....but I could get all the morphine I wanted?!?!?!
Children are precious....how about that old spoonful of sugar...without the medicine?
http://dailyblonde.blogspot.com
We agree that the responsible use of placebos can work wonders, and not only for children.
We are four friends who have been following the debate for a while and decided to do something about by making placebos available to the public.
On our Universal Placebos website there articles and testimonials about what happens even if you know you are taking a placebo . . . so there are no ethical dilemmas about tricking children into bellieving they are having 'real' medicine
rrjrppIf you are curious you can check it out on www.placebo.com.au
This is a horrible, horrible idea.