Placebo for Kids

I normally don't watch the Today Show, but for some reason, I had it on this morning while I was getting ready for work. What I saw really disturbed me. They had a woman and her husband on (Jennifer and Dennis Buettner) who have created a placebo company named Efficacy Brands. Mrs. Buettner had the idea for this company while taking care of her niece who suffered from hypochondria. She reasoned that her niece and other kids could benefit from taking placebo pills for small ailments because if they took a pill (thinking it was medication), they would feel better...thinking the medication was working in their bodies (aka: the placebo affect).

On the Today Show, I was glad to see Matt Lauer and the medical expert tell of how dangerous these placebo pills could be for the kids as they grow into adults because of their dependency on pills for all their ills (my words, not the shows). They explained that if kids get used to popping a pill every time they had any little thing wrong with them, our "pill-popping society" would become even worse. AMEN, MATT LAUER!!! The Buettner's countered with the idea that this would keep people off of medication because they would be taking placebo and not potentially dangerous medications.

I disagree. Matt Lauer and the show's expert had it right...our kids are already WAY too dependent on medication (as are our adults), and we're going to start making it worse by LYING to them and telling them we're giving them medicine and by teaching them that a pill can fix everything. SOMETHING IS MAJORLY WRONG WITH THIS IDEA! This is SO dangerous!
I was so so upset as I watched the interview. The sad thing is, a lot of people will buy into this and start giving their kids these placebo pills. Again, I think a tiny bit of what they're doing is good. I think they have good intentions, but I think their good intentions are going to bring very dangerous consequences. The only good thing about this idea is that the kids aren't taking dangerous meds. The super bad thing is that THEY WILL as they get older.

To read the whole story, check out this article I found from the NY Times:

Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children

My favorite excerpt from the article:

...some doctors worry that giving children “medicine” for every ache and pain teaches that every ailment has a cure in a bottle.

“Kids could grow up thinking that the only way to get better is by taking a pill,” Dr. Brody said. If they do that, he added, they will not learn that a minor complaint like a scraped knee or a cold can improve on its own.

Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist who studies placebos at the Stanford School of Medicine, said conditioning children to reach for relief in a pill could also make them easy targets for quacks and pharmaceutical pitches later. “They used to sell candied cigarettes to kids to get them used to the idea of playing with cigarettes,” he said.