Associated Press Review of The Placebo Chronicles

Book takes Satirical glimpse at medicine
In the irreverent tradition of the humor magazine, a doctor takes a satirical glimpse at his profession.
By Jerry Harkavy
Associated Press

AUBURN, Maine -- You might think that the Placebo Journal's outrageous humor detailing the weird-but-true foibles of the medical profession should be confined to the doctors' lounge.

But Dr. Douglas Farrago, the journal's creator and editor, wants to expand his readership to a general audience, betting that patients as well as doctors will guffaw at gross-out stories about malodorous infections, rivers of nasty pus and foreign objects in bodily orifices.

Farrago's new book, "The Placebo Chronicles," is a compilation of jokes, anecdotes, illustrations and fake ads from the magazine that the family physician started five years ago.

Likened to a Mad magazine for doctors, its goal was to point out some of the problems with medicine and have a few laughs at the same time.

More than half the journal's 5,000 to 6,000 subscribers are doctors; most of the rest are nurses, nurse practitioners, drug company representatives and others within the health-care field.

By contrast, Farrago hopes the book will attract a lay readership that will be fascinated and entertained by his juvenile humor and satirical inside view of the profession.

"I'm giving people the backstage pass to the rock concert of medicine," he says, "and I think it's good for medicine in the long run. And if I give medicine the enema it deserves, I'm OK with that."

The public's interest in doctors seems boundless, he says. " 'Scrubs' is huge on TV; there's 'House, M.D.' 'E.R.' then back to 'St. Elsewhere' and 'Marcus Welby.' Everybody wants to see what goes on in a doctor's life. We have this morbid curiosity."

He is quick to acknowledge that his take on medicine will never be confused with Welby's. "I think that stuff is great to tug at your heartstrings, but we're showing another side -- one that's real."

Still, his waiting room is devoid of copies of the Placebo Journal. "I'm not afraid to put it out there," he says, but "I don't want my patients to think they're fodder for the journal."

Larry Sargent had been a patient of his for three years before someone outside the practice told him about Placebo Journal. Sargent asked about it on his next visit to the office and was directed by a nurse to the Web site. He since has become a subscriber, and a fan of his doctor's offbeat humor.

"I think it's a great place for nonprofessionals like myself to see what doctors are up against," said Sargent, who confessed that some of the material goes over his head because he's unfamiliar with the terminology.

Besides the magazine, the book and the Web site, Farrago, 40, puts out the Placebo Gazette, a biweekly newsletter delivered free online, and prepares radio monologues for his fictitious WKOM, which stands for King of Medicine. Most of the journal material is contributed by a network of hundreds of physicians around the country, but Farrago does all the editing.

His ground rules are simple: The stories must be true, they cannot depict harm to a patient, and there can be no breach of patient confidentiality.