Should Placebo Treatment Be Used in the Clinical Setting for Pain Management? A Commentary

Abstract

A placebo should not be used in clinical settings for pain management because it is associated with ethical dilemmas and also has detrimental health effects. It is illegal and immoral to fabricate, suppress and misrepresent information to the client, because concealing information has a considerable outcome on the patient-doctor relationship. The use of a placebo has a substantial negative impact on clients’ health when they are actually in pain. However, a placebo has an impact on patients’ expectations by activating a series of endogenous opioids that modify the experience of pain. While it is true that a placebo helps in reducing pain in some circumstances, we cannot just assume that a placebo always works effectively for all patients. The use of a placebo can compromise the patient’s safety or underrate the potential risk associated with disregarding the patient’s actual pain. The use of a placebo is ethically problematic as it falls under the concept of deception, and it is also injurious to misunderstand the actual pain that may lead to serious health consequences.