80% of Doctors Admit to Prescribing Placebos

Whether it’s a cold, rash or worry, when most of us visit our local GP, we expect to be given a medication that will fix our problems. But a recent study has shown that doctors (as much as 80%!) are prescribing placebos. A placebo treatment is one where the doctor knows it will not address the underlying condition but may produce a positive psychological or physiological effect. To unpack this issue further we spoke to Associate Professor Ben Colagiruri from the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney who undertook this research.