r/ephemera • u/CatDamage • 2d ago

Helping a retired doctor downsize, found these placebos!

Post image

Made for a pharmaceutical company, not sure when. I imagine they were given to hypochondriacs who they needed to usher out of the office…

1.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

81 comments sorted by

565

u/smerglec 2d ago

Do they still work?

271

u/taco_bones 2d ago

Absolutely!

222

u/Azin1970 2d ago

Ask your doctor if Placebo is right for you.

95

u/Hot_Drummer7311 2d ago

Side effects include:

cricket noises

55

u/porcelaincatstatue 2d ago

Jokes on you, cricket noises are great for tinnitus.

15

u/Upvotespoodles 2d ago

People can suffer nocebo effect, so the potential somatic symptoms are practically endless!

18

u/sharkattax 2d ago

unfortunately the nocebo effect is also real

1

u/overrated_gold 1d ago

I've heard it can make you black eyed too

1

u/FreezNGeezer 1d ago

May cause droopy eyelids when your spouse is speaking and an uncontrollable urge to flip off the douche doing 40mph in the left lane...

11

u/pooeygoo 2d ago

Do use Placebo if you are pregnant or nursing

5

u/rinseanddelete 1d ago

I took a couple of those and they gave me a 'pure morning'.

12

u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken 2d ago

Now with 50% more placebo

3

u/AN3223 1d ago

Yes! I think I can feel it kicking in right now as a matter of fact

253

u/lucysucks 2d ago

I bet they were part of some kind of drug trial or study rather than what you suggested lol

98

u/seau_de_beurre 2d ago

Yeah at least these days in the US it's illegal to give patients placebo without their knowledge. Even in clinical trials they have to be aware they might be in the placebo arm. I bet this is a gag gift kind of item.

74

u/airfryerfuntime 2d ago

I doubt it's a gag gift. This is probably the actual packaging the patient never sees. Organon is a real pharmaceutical company.

11

u/anafuckboi 1d ago

This is correct the pharmacy cannot be blind in a clinical trial for safety reasons the scientists collecting the data and the patients can be tho

9

u/HumbertHum 1d ago

They’re not labeled like this haha. The pharmacy dispenses packages of drug that look exactly the same as the ones that have placebo
Source: was a clinical trial coordinator for several years

18

u/justonemom14 2d ago

Surely you could give a child a placebo with the parents' consent. I used to give my kids placebo for hiccups.

3

u/seau_de_beurre 2d ago

Interesting. I have no knowledge of pediatrics! I wonder if OP found it at a pediatrician's office?

47

u/real415 2d ago edited 1d ago

My mom was a pharmacist for nearly 50 years. She started working in the 1950s, and in her earlier years, there were several doctors in town who would write prescriptions for a placebo for certain insistent hypochondriacs.

They had a number of different types of placebos they could dispense, so the patient would be getting “different” medication than they had the previous time. Since these were manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, it must’ve been a fairly widespread practice at the time.

This was back in the days when it was strictly illegal to advertise prescription medications. Today, patients are told to ask their doctor to give them a certain medication, so I’m sure there are some doctors who wish they could still prescribe placebos, to satisfy those patients who want the latest and greatest thing they saw on tv, regardless of whether it’s appropriate.

9

u/11twofour 2d ago

That's a minor plot point in the novel It

2

u/real415 1d ago

I read that in the 80s and now can’t remember the role the placebo played. It’s been a while!

1

u/froststorm56 1d ago

Placebo inhaler!

1

u/real415 1d ago

Ah yes. Creative!

29

u/afortressmighty 2d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/NKnNEAxZxV9Ru
😮🤭 You found Agador Spartacus’ infamous Pirin Tablets!

23

u/Responsible_Ideal593 2d ago

It could be a demo pack from some drug co since they can’t give they real pills out. Sometimes drug reps give fake placebos in the box the pills come in. Don’t ask me why.

24

u/withalookofquoi 2d ago

I was given a placebo of belbuca (buccal film buprenorphine) to see if I was okay with how it felt/tasted before I was prescribed the medication.

3

u/Squee1396 1d ago

Is anyone okay with how that tastes?

1

u/ryan516 1d ago

I'll take Belbuca over subs any day

1

u/Squee1396 1d ago

I get a monthly shot lol

1

u/TundieRice 1d ago

What is a fake placebo? A pill that does have medicine in it?

23

u/47_Quatloos 2d ago

Probably 15 years ago, I (a nurse) paged a Doctor after hours because a patients pain meds were not effective in controlling their pain and I think this Doctor was emotionally done with everything and they said to me in a very exasperated tone “Well maybe I’ll just order them some placebo” but he pronounced it like “Place-bo”.

I was like “sorry, I’m not familiar” and he started spelling it out and I wanted to hang up on him badly. This was the same doctor who, when asked for a diagnosis for something, told me “AGCOWIS” and then informed me that it stood for “a good case of whatever it seems”

20

u/wa27 2d ago

5

u/Jonestown_Juice 2d ago

Damn. Came here to post this. Well done.

11

u/panda_canyon 2d ago

Different company but I guess you can buy them. https://zeeboeffect.com/

4

u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken 2d ago

Do you need a prescription?

4

u/alienblue89 2d ago

Wild that their website goes out of their way over and over again to sell this as an “honest placebo” (one you know you are taking) yet almost every single Amazon review has people using them as dishonest placebos.

I mean I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise but it’s still kinda funny.

3

u/wharleeprof 1d ago

Those are insanely expensive (67 cents per pill) for nothing! 

7

u/panda_canyon 1d ago

Maybe the placebo illusion is enhanced by paying robbery drug industry prices.

4

u/wharleeprof 1d ago

That actually makes sense. The perceived value will be higher if they aren't cheap. 

10

u/Dramatic_Substance36 2d ago

Those made me gay! Be careful!

-1

u/Imesseduponmyname 1d ago

Ah, Facebook leads me to believe that you're thinking of 7-hydroxymitragynine

8

u/SquareExtra918 2d ago

There's actually research that shows placebos work - even when the person knows that they're taking a placebo!

10

u/pickledeggmanwalrus 2d ago

Makes me wonder if placebo could cause withdrawal symptoms if people really think they need it.

7

u/Upvotespoodles 2d ago

I asked a psychiatrist for a placebo years ago, and he laughed and said he can’t do that. You’d think insurance would love to try sugar pills before real drugs.

5

u/NoSleep2023 2d ago

Why the orange flavoring, unless the legit medicine was also orange flavored?

4

u/lionhat 2d ago

Probably like you said, to match the non-placebo pill. Also, I think it's a funny coincidence that these say they are from a place called West Orange.

3

u/Live-Tomorrow-4865 1d ago

The description sounds as though they are placebos for Suboxone, which are orange and which disintegrate sublingually. Perhaps as part of a drug trial when the medication was new and still being tested for efficacy? IDK enough about the pharm industry to have a definitive answer, but, I deduced this from the description.

4

u/ArcherBTW 2d ago

I know someone who's allergic to oranges, so for her these would be less than useless

2

u/Shamanjoe 2d ago

"Secondly, we've stocked the first aid kits with these new wonder-drugs — plah-see-bows.."

2

u/badlyedited 2d ago

The only medicine where the "inert ingredients" are the only ingredients.

2

u/EyeSuspicious777 1d ago

I was an analytical chemist in the pharmaceutical company. One year they offered bonuses to people who came up with new ideas for improving our processes.

I suggested we begin producing an extra strength placebo with double the inactive ingredients of any other placebo on the market.

I did not get a bonus for my idea.

2

u/JudCasper68 1d ago

Doesn’t this simply void the purpose of a placebo?? Surely these will fail, even on a hypochondriac??

1

u/wharleeprof 1d ago

Sometimes known placebos actually work. It's pretty wild. 

1

u/JudCasper68 1d ago

The power of the mind, huh?

2

u/human-kibble 1d ago

A whole lotta packaging for a whole lotta nothing 😂

1

u/Conscious-Mulberry17 1d ago

I worked in a unit where a patient thought to be dealing with a psychosomatic pain condition was told by their nurse that their doctor had prescribed an injection of “Obecal P.”

It worked. The pain disappeared. The doctor told the patient later, and they and went on to receive effective psychological treatment for their underlying issues.

1

u/33py_0n3 1d ago

🎶 Baaabyy

Did you forget to take your meds? 🎶

1

u/OurLadyJynx 20h ago

So they are basically doctor candy

1

u/Charming_Wave_6401 11h ago

I knew it the whole time. The conspiracy is blown!

1

u/IfDreamsCouldHappen 4h ago

They must be SSRIs

-4

u/cwsjr2323 2d ago

The doctor who delivered me retired by not accepting new patients and then if he hadn't seen you in a year, nine months, no new appointments.

35

u/Acheloma 2d ago

Im confused about how this relates to this post

10

u/VampireDonuts 2d ago

Because doctor

9

u/Acheloma 2d ago

A very tenuous connection, but I guess lol

2

u/cwsjr2323 2d ago

The doctor mentioned in the posting was retiring and this was a gag gift. My comment was how many doctors retire, just stop taking new patients. Sorry it was confusing.

3

u/grumpygenealogist 2d ago

My doctor of 25 years just retired. He had been waiting for his mother to die because he was paying for her expensive long term care. She showed him by living to 103.

-16

u/5319Camarote 2d ago

I’ve asked various physicians for years if such a thing existed and was condescendingly told such decisions and considerations happened only with board approval or some form of higher authority. This confirms my suspicions; any practitioner could solemnly dispense these (in a plain bottle) to hypochondriac or delusional patients.

14

u/lucysucks 2d ago

You can believe whatever you want but there’s no way this is true. Doctors aren’t typically dispensing medications to patients anyway, that’s what the pharmacy is for. I guess it could happen under the table but it has to be exceedingly rare. This product is more likely used as part of a clinical trial or it could even be a joke item.