I'm wondering what our community Members think about this item up for "discussion and consideration" by the AVMA Executive Board. I would like to gather our community's views and opinions on this topic and submit them to the AVMA - as they are soliciting comments on this policy up for review this Spring.
I found it somewhat interesting that right around the same time that this issue was raised for consideration, there was an article in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association - November 15, 2012, Vol. 241(10), Pages 1314-1319 on the "Caregiver placebo effect for dogs with lameness from osteoarthritis. In short, the results were:
Results—A caregiver placebo effect for owners evaluating their dog's lameness occurred 39.7% of the time. A caregiver placebo effect occurred 44.8% of the time when veterinarians examined dogs for lameness at a walk, 44.8% of the time when veterinarians examined dogs for lameness at a trot, and 43.1% of the time when veterinarians evaluated dogs for signs of pain on palpation of the joint. This effect was significantly enhanced with time. Mean ground reaction forces (GRFs) remained unchanged for dogs during treatment with the placebo. Individually, of 58 dogs, 5 had GRFs that worsened by ≥ 5% over 42 days, 7 had GRFs that improved by ≥ 5% over 42 days, and 46 had GRFs that remained unchanged.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—A caregiver placebo effect was common in the evaluation of patient response to treatment for osteoarthritis by both pet owners and veterinarians. Force platform gait analysis was an unbiased outcome measure for dogs with lameness from osteoarthritis. A caregiver placebo effect should be considered when interpreting owner and veterinary reports of patient response to treatment.
Join me in this discussion!
