When treatment choices are limited or when true
effectiveness is not clear, patients want hope: they want to have a chance to
get better. Doctors hold this valuable commodity, and dispense it on demand,
for a fee, after which they claim any perceived improvement as
being due to their efforts. Even when a treatment is not proven to be
effective, or when it is proven to be no better than placebo, doctors too
easily fall into the role of hope-peddler, without considering the hidden costs or unintended consequences.
