Regarding placebo prescriptions, I am personally in favour of them. The public still seems unaware how toxic pharmaceutical drugs are, what the agenda behind is – “the business of money” and just how high the death statistics are in NZ and other Western countries because of them. All you need to do is google “pharmaceutical genocide” to see the harm that is coming from them. The doctors comments about homeopaths etc being an enemy is exactly the mentality that formed the American Medical Association early last century with a mission to put their own medicine above any others and stamp out any “so called” competition to them which were mainly homeopaths and it was a threat because so many people were responding well to homeopathic medicine at the time and many still do today. This all happened by the medical doctors were still into blood letting and prescribing mercury and other poisons. Not long after that they were recommending that their patients and in particular pregnant women, take up smoking . Today they are still experimenting with putting unnatural substances into a natural body. I do not understand why complementary medicines are so heavily attacked when there are less deaths per annum that bathtub drowning, while preventable medical injury and adverse drug reactions are the third leading cause of death in this country. Research this for yourself. A closed mind is only keeping people in their oppressed states, silencing and suppressing those who actually do care about humanity, are qualified and experienced in what they practice in these “so-called” alternative therapies. If a doctor does not know what to do for a patient and feels in need of prescribing a placebo, why not recommend natural alternative therapies rather than covering up their lack of knowledge. Why not turn our thoughts towards the good of people and how they can be well and healthy for significantly minor cost with alternative therapies and knowledge about how they can change their lifestyle to support this and avoid the major costs the medical industry sucks out of tax payer pockets.

The general population are extra ordinarily uneducated about health issues. Some people even recommend to their friends and relatives medicines they know little about ('it worked for me it'll work for you.') Most have no idea what influenza is. They call the common cold the 'flu' (you don't get the flu and return to work the next day or the day after.) The 'alternative' therapy practitioners are cashing in on this lack of knowledge. Homeopathy and vitamin supplements etc are such an unbeleiveable crock it amazes me their sale is not better regulated. They feed on peoples worries and concerns (are you feeling 100%?) There is little if any credible evidence as to the effectiveness for much of what is sold. Yes people the snake oil merchants are out there in force waiting to trick you out of your dollar. Few of them went to med school and those that did ought to know better.

I know of a lot of people who would be classed by a majority of society as Hypochondriacs. They get a snivel and run to the doctor claiming they must have nose cancer. The doc gives them a prescription for something, goodness knows if it is a real drug or just a placebo, but whatever it is, it "fixes" the problem and the person is able to move on the their next health problem. We know from research that a drug loses it's ability to work when it is taken too much, I can no longer take a particular antibiotic because I was given it so much as a child for tonsilitis.

If given a placebo cures a persons 'illness' then good, it will mean that when there is a true threat (not just the swine) then the drugs we have will actually work.

It is very difficult to dispense medication in accordance with Pharmac and Pharmaceutical Society requirements and guidelines if the Doctor is not fully informing the patient of what they phave prescribed and why.

@ #3 Since learning about alternative health options three years ago, I have reduced my doctor's visits to 1 check up a year. The traditional/biomechanical and alternative models of health both have thier place. Lacking knowledge in one area is not an excuse to deny the advantages or effects of either option.

For real life examples of the placebo efect just visit your local health-food shop or homeopathist.

I'm sure placebo prescribing has always and will always occur in differing degrees - I am not an advocate of it nor do I know of one.

New Zealand healthcare has a much bigger enemy in the form of the homeopathists/ iridologists/ snake oil salesmen/ "health food" shop workers and so called natural health alternatives that pervade tour society. These are poorly educated groups that take money from desperate people and sell false hope without evidence no regulation.

Please could the giovernment and Universities stamp out this nonsense once and for all rather than worrying about the occasional paracetamol script?

Awaiting the flurry of "homeopathy doesn't fit the scientific model", "I have lots of happy customers", "I make a good living out of vitamins and palm reading" etc. etc. etc.

Your description of placebo as a drug that doesn't work is unfortunate, because placebos do work, not because of an inherent property of the placebo tablet/injection/surgery but because of expectation and effectively the power of the mind to alter the brains own ability to , for example reduce pain- by mechanisms that we are only just beginning to understand well. To say that one in three people respond to placebos is not correct either; we may all respond to placebo, and the response depends on many things, includng the colour of the tablet, or size of injection, or even whether I wear a white coat when I give it. It's an old ethical conundrum that is presented to young doctors; If a desperate patient came to you with a treatment that needed you to administer it, but you knew it to be a placebo, yet the patient demanded that you give it to them despite your objection, what would you do? Give it despite your reservations about it being a placebo? Don't give it because you are standing by your Hippocratic principle of "first do no harm" - they might be allergic to smething in the treatment, they might become psychologically dependant on it/ you etc, most likely they might become distressed by the failure of another treatment, which then sets up a vicious nocebo cycle- meaning your next active "real treatment" has less chance of succeeding. The problem with placebos where the patient doesn't know is the breach of trust between you and your patient, not that they don't work. Drugs with so called active ingredients don't always work either, depending on your genetic / psychological and environmental situation e.g codeine is inneffective in 30% Hong Kong Chinese, they lack the enzyme to convert it to it's active form. We have no idea about New Zealand people(Pakeha or Maori) no-one has done that work. What we desperately need is a way to harness placebo in a way that benefits everyone - not just the sugar pill manufacturer.