Most [UK] family doctors have given a patient a placebo drug
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21834440

So how does this work?
- Do patients prescribed placebos experience the side effects for the apparent named drug? ie. The Nocebo effect.
- Are the placebos branded or generic?
- Do they cost the same prescription charge?
- In these days of internet research, surely we can look up and check if a particular medicine is actually a placebo.
- Is there some special mark or acronym on the prescription which tells the pharmacist to put the special sugar pills into the "Lopitoff 80mg" box? Or is "Lopitoff" the real drug and "Lopitoff-NR" the placebo?