title: Ethical aspects of clinical placebo use: what do laypeople think?
abstract: The study aimed to assess the attitudes of laypeople toward clinical placebo use. One of three imaginary stories was presented randomly in a popular news portal and participants (6,404 individuals) were asked to rate nine statements about it. In the stories, placebo therapy was used in a deceptive way. Following the success of the treatment, the patient was informed that the remedy contained no active substances. Along with self-report of attitudes, questionnaires measuring dispositional optimism, somatosensory amplification and beliefs about the scientific validity of complementary and alternative medicine and holistic health were also completed. According to participants' ratings, helping patients is more important than avoiding deception. They did not think that they would have felt deceived in the described situation or that treatment would have been successful in a fully informed case. Patients' attitude toward deceptive placebo use appears to be more pragmatic than has been previously supposed.
authors: Institute for Health Promotion and Sport Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. fecuska@gmail.com
authors: Ferenc
authors: F
authors: Köteles
authors: Eszter
authors: E
authors: Ferentzi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D007258:Informed Consent; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D015990:Placebo Effect; D010919:Placebos / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000941:ethics*; D011639:Public Opinion; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010919:Placebos