WASHINGTON, D.C. –
In a bid to make placebos more convincing, doctors are reportedly now prescribing morphine as a cure-all from phantom headaches to imagined cancer symptoms. The move comes as a result of the increased publicity the so-called “sugar-pills” have received, causing their psychological effects to be dampened.
“Research has shown that placebos work even when the patient is told it has no medicinal content,” said pharmaceutical expert Harry Flaubert. “However, their success is limited – there’s only so much you can do to trick a human body into thinking it feels better. Now with the public becoming more and more sceptical of pharmaceuticals as a whole, placebos are convincing almost no one.”
Doctors around the country have therefore been moving onto opiates to ensure the patients can actually feel the pills working, even if their effects have nothing to do with the symptoms reported. Simply by virtue of the fact that the patient feels a pleasant numbing in his or her head, s/he presumes the placebo is working and is satisfied.
Television personality, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has hailed morphine as a “miracle drug.”
“It’s everything you’ve been waiting for, folks,” he enthused on his eponymous show. “These drugs are the true panacea. They work almost exactly like heroin, and can cure all your problems, whether physical or psychological.”
Local old hag, Penelope Tudor, has for the first time in her life praised her doctor for work well done.
“He’s wonderful,” she said, referring to the browbeaten doctor, Dr. Charles Matic. “These new tablets he gave me are flm avaz herrummmmph…”
Dr. Matic said of the drowsy and disoriented Miss Tudor, that the morphine is really working for her, and he’s looking forward to her willing acceptance of his constant assurances that she won’t become addicted.