High percentage of US patients on placebos without knowing it.

A new study amongst doctors in the United States on the use
of placebos - pills with no medical effect - shows that almost
half of the questioned practitioners prescribe placebos,
most of them within the last year.
The majority of 466 faculty physicians at Chicago-area
medical schools interviewed by a research group of the
University of Chicago stated that placebos are useful to calm
a patient down or to respond to demands for medication that
the doctor disagrees with, i.e. "to get the patient to stop complaining".