### 252516328 effective healers must be trusted > If it became generally accepted to prescribe lots of pills that probably didn’t work, and patients knew this, it might decrease trust in all medications. Even if your doctor said “this is one of the ones that definitely works”, some people wouldn’t believe them. And there’s no bright line between the ones that have a 99.9% chance of working, 99% chance of working, 90% chance, 50% chance, and 5% chance (which are antidepressants? I would say closest to 90% chance of working in theory, 50% for an individual patient - but I’m not sure!) This could water down patient perception of every medication from “effective cure” to “shot in the dark”. - [View Highlight](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/pascalian-medicine?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo4MDc2ODE1LCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0NDM3NTMyNCwiXyI6InpOWllYIiwiaWF0IjoxNjM3Nzc5MTIyLCJleHAiOjE2Mzc3ODI3MjIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi04OTEyMCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.JzU-KlMnIrXWwwLdB593x_B9UXPnP-YuhKXUsCQFCBE&__readwiseLocation=0%2F24%2F0%2F3%2F0%2F0%2F0%2F1%2F2%2F0%2F1%3A0%2C0%2F24%2F0%2F3%2F0%2F0%2F0%2F1%2F2%2F0%2F1%3A645#:~:text=If%20it%20became%20generally%20accepted%2Cto%20%E2%80%9Cshot%20in%20the%20dark%E2%80%9D.) - [[Pascalian Medicine by Scott Alexander#252516328 effective healers must be trusted|View in Vault]]