Doctors Prescribing Placebos

From the ongoing series I sometimes drink the Robin Hanson Cool Aid:

1. The NY Times reports that Half of all American doctors responding to a nationwide survey say they regularly prescribe placebos to patients. [...] The most common placebos the American doctors reported using were headache pills and vitamins, but a significant number also reported prescribing antibiotics and sedatives.

2. I’m all for the prescription of placebos: they’re cheaper and have less side effects than real medication, but prescribing anti-biotics when not needed is just wrong.

3. Anti-biotics are the single class of medication where we have a strong public-good argument for limiting their availability for cases where it’s not strictly needed. Overuse of anti-biotics is a major cause of anti-biotic resistance. So, we give doctors the power to decide who takes them (and who doesn’t).

4. All evidence points to doctors abusing that power and giving anti-biotics to get people out of their offices.