There is a new product available called “Obecalp”, which happens to be the word “placebo” spelled backwards. It consists of cherry-flavored dextrose. Yup, that's all. It is for children, and is intended to make them feel they are being treated for something, wihout actually giving them any medication.
Because they contain no active drug, the pills will not be sold as a drug under Food and Drug Administration rules. They will be marketed as dietary supplements, meaning they can be sold at groceries, drug stores and discount stores and discount stores without a prescription.”
And the Ethics. This is wrong on so many levels, I hardly know where to start.
First, what parent would interact with their child so deceptively? I find I intuitively make a distinction here between the kind of charming mothering that says "a kiss will make it better" and a commercial produt that LOOKS like real medicine. Second, either the child is sick or it is not. If it is not, why lead it to believe that a pill, any pill, is what will help? If it is sick, who would want to take a chance on treating it with fake medicine? Third, dosing the child with a delicious pill at the first sign of trouble, will contribute to the "take a pill for any ill" mentality which has led to the over-medicated society we live in.
Traditionally, mommies make owies go away with a kiss or some other form of TLC. But one day when Jennifer (Buettner) was trying in vain to cope with a hypochondriac niece, she asked her husband to pick up some placebo pills at the drugstore. This must have amused his local druggist, and of course Mr. Buettner returned home with no placebo.
That's when a light bulb blinked on over Jennifer's head.
Instead of simply giving her "ailing" niece a baby aspirin and telling her it was a new miracle drug, Jennifer started thinking big and developed Obecalp (spell it backwards) - a standardized, pharmaceutical grade, chewable, cherry-flavored pill, sweetened with just a bit of dextrose (sugar).
Read what the Quackometer has to say
What do YOU think??
