Can you be prescribed a Placebo with your knowledge?

Hi @ccarpenter I found an archived article on WebMD https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20081023/50percent-of-doctors-give-fake-prescriptions
Here’s an excerpt from the article regarding the Placebo Effect.

The official policy of the American Medical Association:
“Use of a placebo without the patient's knowledge may undermine trust, compromise the patient-physician relationship, and result in medical harm to the patient.
A placebo must not be given merely to mollify a difficult patient, because doing so serves the convenience of the physician more than it promotes the patient's welfare.
Physicians may use placebos for diagnosis or treatment only if the patient is informed of and agrees to its use.
That last point seems tricky. How can a fake drug work if a patient knows it is fake?

The AMA policy says doctors should explain to patients that they can better understand their condition if they try different medicines, including a placebo. If the patient agrees to this, the doctor does not have to identify which medicine is fake, nor does the doctor have to get the patient's specific consent before giving the patient the fake treatment.”

Are you questioning a medication from your doctor that doesn’t seem to be working?

You can also check with a drug identifier online such as https://www.drugs.com/
Have you checked with your pharmacist?

This is silly. The fact that a person knows that the medication or treatment is not real will undermine the placebo effect.
If a person is told by the doctor that they are just being given a placebo and not a "real" pill they can sometimes benefit but it is only their belief that everything prescribed by a doctor is beneficial.
Our minds generate what we believe in. The more we believe the greater the effect.
It is due to energy transference.
You believe in something, your mind visualises that something and science converts the energy of that something into a reality.
The Higgs Boson is the main player but it needs a potentiality, such as a cured condition to work on.
What is not taught in our schools is that as far as creation goes potentialities are a form of energy, they are not inert. Their energy's are released by a belief, and intention.

Had to look up Higgs Boson and unfortunately don’t have the background to understand it. But I found your comment on potentialities thought provoking.

If you know that it's a placebo, it won't work. Placebo is something a healthcare professional has prescribed that you think is a medicine but in reality it isn't.

It's the psychological effect that is at work here, not the thing that is given to you as medicine.

Unless you believe in magic?
Or perhaps just that someone would take the time to listen and talk.
And there are times that it seems the illness itself may be a kind of "placebo."
We could all use a little dose of compassion now and then.