this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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The placebo effect is strong, so strong it can confound a double blind study. Having someone who actually listens to your medical complaint and provides sympathy can have a positive influence on recovery. Neither is "real medicine" but for a lot of people it's supportive of the natural healing process (people usually to get better over time without intervention) and if it's harmless that's fine.
The problems start when people replace real medicine with alternative care and particularly for illnesses that don't get better on their own, like cancer or vaccine preventable illness.
Go to a doctor: I got thirty seconds, you talk, nearly naked, while I read the answers of questions asked you by the CNA. Ok got it. Let me conduct a test. Done. Here is your script.
So like am I going to die? Oh you already left.
Go to a fake-doctor: take all the time you need, clearly you are terrified that something is very wrong and WebMD scared the shit out of you. I will practice active listening while you speak, afterwards I will give you a placebo that doesn't do anything bad and a massage. Make sure to come back once a week for twenty years.
I don't blame doctors and I want to make this clear. They are under a lot of pressure to churn out patients. The unfortunate result of the system is that fake-doctors can thrive due to having the ability to develop a bedside manner. I don't have a solution to this problem.