I'm reminded of the lyrics for Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine"...
"Your love is like bad medicine
Bad medicine is what I need
Shake it up just like bad medicine
There ain't no doctor that can
cure my disease"
...except for this story we'd need to change the word "bad" to "fake".
Obecalp.
Have you heard of it?
It's a... well... fake drug. A placebo (the name, backwards). A sugar pill that tastes like cherries, apparently. And parents are giving the placebo to their kids when they don't think their kids really need medication. Some parents swear by it, saying kids often think they're sick when they're not and why put medications in your child if they don't need them.
According to a study out of the University of Chicago, placebo use in the medical field is common. Surveys were sent to more than 455 inernists...
Of those, 45 percent said they had used a placebo during their clinical practice, a number that surprised the researchers.
On the other hand, some say giving obecalp is a form of deceit, and believe giving a kid a cherry-testing pill whenever they say they feel sick is teaching them to need medication.
What do you think?
Here's the recent Times article.
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