Tag: complementary and alternative medicine

Latent profile analysis

Alternative medicine and antivax: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together—particularly when among physicians

A recent study reaffirms the high degree of correlation among physicians between antivax views and an embrace of quackery. This is an old finding that needs to be documented periodically and shows why the acceptance of non-science-based treatments by physicians endangers vaccination efforts.

/ October 16, 2023
EBM hierarchy

Evidence-based medicine vs. basic science in medical school

Last week Dr. Vinay Prasad wrote a Substack arguing that medical students should learn the principles of evidence-based medicine before basic science.This is a recipe for amplifying the main flaw in EBM that science-based medicine was meant to correct, and Dr. Prasad's arguments would have been right at home on an integrative medicine blog. [Note ADDENDUM.]

/ May 22, 2023
Aragorn at the Black Gate of Mordor

After 15 years of SBM: Lessons learned and what the future holds

Last week, Dr. Novella discussed what SBM has accomplished over the last 15 years. I'm going to discuss lessons learned, what has changed, and remaining huge challenges. Unfortunately, after the pandemic, our position in 2022 reminds me even more than ever of Aragorn at the Black Gate of Mordor, but that does not mean things are hopeless.

/ December 26, 2022
Dr Andrew Wakefield

Why is anyone surprised that there are so many antivax physicians?

A new survey suggests that a disturbingly high percentage of physicians are either vaccine hesitant or actually antivaccine. Those of us who have been writing about the antivaccine movement know that this is not new, but it seems new to our colleagues who weren't paying attention before the pandemic and assured themselves that the problem was just Andrew Wakefield. The question is:...

/ April 18, 2022

Why It’s Worthwhile to Debunk Shivambu

Richard Feynman famously said, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool". This is the most important lesson skepticism has to offer.

/ December 17, 2021
NCCIH frameworks

NCCIH Strategic Plan 2021⁠–⁠2025: Meet the new plan, same as the old plan…?

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health recently released its latest 5 year strategic plan. It's basically the same as the last strategic plan, but with one new addition. It's not really a new addition, but it signals a resurrection of an old trope about "integrating" quackery with science-based medicine.

/ June 28, 2021
Homeopathy tablets

The risks associated with alternative medicine

In a new paper, the types and severity of harms from different types of alternative medicine are described.

/ June 24, 2021

Adverse Events Linked to Pediatric “Alternative Medicine” in the Netherlands

A study out of the Netherlands documented pediatric adverse events associated with complementary and alternative medicine over three years. Thankfully there weren't a lot of kids harmed, but when there is no potential benefit from an intervention, even one is way too many.

/ April 16, 2021

“Quack Protection Acts” proposed in state legislatures

Laws protecting "complementary and alternative" health care providers from state regulation have been proposed in several state legislatures under the rubric of "health freedom". These "Quack Protection Acts" harm consumers.

/ April 8, 2021

A world-renowned placebo researcher asks, “Does placebo research boost pseudoscience?”

Professor Fabrizio Benedetti is the most famous and almost certainly also the most influential researcher investigating the physiology of placebo effects. In a recent commentary, he asks whether placebo research is fueling quackery, as quacks co-opt its results. The answer to that question is certainly yes. A better question is: How do supporters of science counter the placebo narrative promoted by quacks,...

/ September 23, 2019