Submited on: 10 Sep 2010 10:08:16 AM GMT
Published on: 10 Sep 2010 11:07:39 AM GMT
 
Placebo Prescribing Habits in a University Hospital
Posted by Dr. William J Maloney on 16 Feb 2014 12:07:42 AM GMT Reviewed by Interested Peers

  • What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?

    The main purpose of this paper is to report the placebo prescribing habits among Saudi health care providers.


  • Are these claims novel? If not, please specify papers that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.

    Yes


  • Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?

    Yes


  • Do the results support the claims? If not, what other evidence is required?

    Yes


  • If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?

    No


  • Is the methodology valid? Does the paper offer enough details of its methodology that its experiments or its analyses could be reproduced?

    Yes


  • Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper? How much better would the paper be if this extra work was done, and how difficult would such work be to do, or to provide?

    No


  • Is this paper outstanding in its discipline? (For example, would you like to see this work presented in a seminar at your hospital or university? Do you feel these results need to be incorporated in your next general lecture on the subject?) If yes, what makes it outstanding? If not, why not?

    Yes- It would be a great seminar in a hospital.


  • Other Comments:

    The authors found that the frequency of the Saudi doctors prescribing a placebo is lower than reported elsewhere. Many of the respondents believed that the placebo mode of action is through a psychological mechanism. Only a very small percentage of respondents believed that placebo prescriptions should be prohibited.

  • Competing interests:
    None
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:

    None

  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Clinical associate professor

  • How to cite:  Maloney W J.Placebo Prescribing Habits in a University Hospital[Review of the article 'Placebo Prescribing Habits And Views In A University Hospital ' by AL SAYYARI A].WebmedCentral 2010;5(2):WMCRW003000
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http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/587
Posted by Dr. Fissal A Shaheen on 25 Oct 2010 11:09:09 PM GMT

  • Other Comments: faissal shaheen
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
    None
  • How to cite:  Shaheen F A.http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/587[Review of the article 'Placebo Prescribing Habits And Views In A University Hospital ' by AL SAYYARI A].WebmedCentral 2010;1(10):WMCRW0083
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  • Other Comments: Thanks to Prof Al Sayyarri for giving me the opportunity to revise such very valuable article The idea of the article is very unique and touches a very critical and sensitive points in medical practice. I could understand that the aim of the study is to know how Saudi health care providers accepts the idea of prescribing placebo treatment but description of the problem was not clear in the paper , I mean what was the problem that stimulates the authors to design such study and what was their expectation as regards results before conducting it. The study will be more helpful if the authors defined the type of patients, their illness, and the nationality of the patients, also is important to know how many patients accepts the idea of receiving placebo and how would they accept this while they know it wouldn?t be effective . Further studies should investigate patients with chronic pain like dialysis and Rheumatoid Arthritis patients Table 1 compared the responses of doctors to nurses which is unfair as we all know that nurses are not allowed to give any drug including placebo without doctor orders. The table also includes the response of the nurses about the mode of action which is also out of their capacity. The authors are kindly requested to explain their findings in the discussion and to give us their recommendation for further studies. Finally I congratulate the authors for their study which touches a very critical and practical points
  • Competing interests:
    No interest to declare
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
    Taching Nephrology to medical studients Managing patients with differnt renal problems Managing Renal Transplant patients
  • How to cite:  Mohmed A H.Placebo Prescribing Habits and Views in a University Hospital [Review of the article 'Placebo Prescribing Habits And Views In A University Hospital ' by AL SAYYARI A].WebmedCentral 2010;1(9):WMCRW0046
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