Edzard Ernst - Trick or Treatment. The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine [Electronic book text]

Maddox, J., Randi, J., Stewart, W. W., ‘High‑dilution experiments a delusion’, Nature 1988; 334: 287–91.

Linde, K., ‘Impact of Study Quality on Outcome in Placebo‑Controlled Trials of Homeopathy’, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1999; 52:631–636.

Shang, A., et al., ‘Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo‑controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy’, Lancet 2005; 366:726–32.

Ernst, E., ‘A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy’ Br J Clin Pharmacol 2002; 54:577–82.

Chapter 4: The Truth About Chiropractic Therapy

Salsburg, D., The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century , Owl, 2002.

Ernst, E., Canter, P. H., ‘A systematic review of systematic reviews of spinal manipulation’, J R Soc Med 2006; 99:192–6.

Benedetti, P., MacPhail, W., Spin Doctors: The Chiropractic Industry Under Examination , Dundern, 2002.

Schmidt, K., Ernst, E., ‘MMR vaccination advice over the Internet’, Vaccine 2003; 21:1044–7.

Jonas, W. B., Ernst, E., ‘Evaluating the safety of complementary and alternative products and practices’, published in Jonas, W., Levin, J. (eds), Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine , Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1999.

Chapter 5: The Truth About Herbal Medicine

Hurley, Dan, Natural Causes: Lies and Politics in America’s Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry , Broadway, 2006.

Fugh‑Berman, A., The 5‑minute herbal and dietary supplement consult , Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2003.

Herr, S. M., Ernst, E., Young, V. S. L., Herb‑drug interaction handbook , Church Street Books, 2002.

Ulbricht, C. E., Basch, E. M. (eds), Natural Standard Herb & Supplement Reference: Evidence‑Based Clinical Reviews , Elsevier Mosby, 2005.

Whyte, J., Bad Thoughts: A Guide to Clear Thinking , Corvo, 2003.

Chapter 6: Does the Truth Matter?

Goldacre, B., Bad Science , Fourth Estate, 2008.

Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., ‘Celebrity‑based medicine’, MJA 2006; 185:680–81.

Colquhoun, D., ‘Science degrees without the science’, Nature 2007; 446:373–4.

Weeks, L., Verhoef, M., Scott, C., ‘Presenting the alternative: cancer and complementary and alternative medicine in the Canadian print media’, Support Care Cancer 2007; 15:931–8.

Appendix

Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., Boddy, K., The Desktop Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine: An Evidence‑Based Approach (2nd edition), Mosby, 2006.

Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., Boddy, K., Complementary Therapies for Pain Management: An Evidence‑Based Approach , Mosby, 2007.

Jonas, W. (ed.), Mosby’s Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine , Mosby, 2005.

Hendler, S. S., Rorvik, D. (eds), PDR for Nutritional Supplements , Blackwell, 2001.

Useful Websites

The James Lind Library: www.jameslindlibrary, org

The Cochrane Collaboration: www.cochrane.org

Bandolier (evidence‑based healthcare website): www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/Bandolier

Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies (FACT) website: www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/

NIH, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM): www.nccam.nih.gov

Healthwatch: www.healthwatch‑uk.org

Exeter University, Complementary Medicine Department: www.pms.ac.uk/compmed/

Simon Singh’s homepage: www.simonsingh.net

Trick or Treatment? homepage: www.trickortreatment.com

The conclusions presented in this book are based on decades of research conducted by thousands of medical researchers around the world. Without their efforts, it would be impossible to separate the effective from the bogus, and the safe from the hazardous.

We would like to offer particular thanks to the entire staff of the Department of Complementary Medicine, part of the Peninsula Medical School at the University of Exeter. They have supported this project from the outset and have always been generous with their advice and encouragement.

Despite the importance of the subject, there were times when it was unclear that this book would ever be published. We are indebted to our editors at Transworld and Norton, who had faith in our ambitions when others thought that alternative medicine was not a subject worthy of investigation. Sally Gaminara and Angela von der Lippe have been helpful and kind during a very intense eighteen months. Of course, we are also grateful to our literary agent Patrick Walsh, who is both a brilliant colleague and an excellent friend.

Last, and probably not least, our wives have both been remarkably wonderful, patient and lovely during the birth of this book. Anita and Danielle have shared our joys and our anxieties, our hopes and our fears. Thank you.

James Lind © Wellcome Library, London

Florence Nightingale’s polar chart © Wellcome Library, London

Model showing acupuncture needle entry points © Wellcome Library, London

Patient receiving acupuncture © Tek Image/Science Photo Library

Archie Cochrane © Cardiff University Library, Cochrane Archive, Llandough Hospital

Samuel Hahnemann © Science Photo Library

Oliver Wendell Holmes © Wellcome Library, London

John Snow’s map of cholera deaths in Soho, 1854 © Royal Society of Medicine

Cervical spine © Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library

Daniel David Palmer © Science Photo Library

Field thistle © Wellcome Library, London

St John’s wort © June Hill Redigo/Custom medical stock photo/ Science Photo Library

acupressure, 83, 316

acupuncture

 authors' concluresions about, 83-8

 Cochrane Collaboration systematic reviews, 77-9, 81

 conditions claimed effectively treated, 44, 49-50, 51, 70-1, 78-9, 272

 dangers of, 50, 183-4, 186

 efficacy tested, 51, 67-9, 71-2, 78, 80-2, 280; German mega-trials, 82

 in China, 46-50, 71-3

 in Europe and America, 45-6, 48-52, 78-9

 origins and history of, 41-6;

  twentieth-century revival, 46-52

 placebo effect of, 55, 67-9, 85, 87-8

 practitioners' criticism of clinical trials, 84-6

 procedure described, 43—4

 sham acupuncture, in placebo-controlled trials, 68-9, 79-82, 85, 86, 280

 underlying principles, 43-4

  lack of anatomical evidence for, 52-3, 83

  other theories, 54-5

 use as surgical anaesthetic, 48-9, 262

 WHO reports on: (1979), 51, 70; (2003), 70-3, 278

acute phase response, 61-2

 and placebo effect, 61-2

Alexander Technique, 293

alternative medicine

 defined, 1-2, 287

 discouraging patients from conventional treatments, 186-9, 213, 216-18, 239-40

 expenditure on, 2, 93, 147, 222, 240-1; by UK National Health Service, 240-1, 253

 importance of therapeutic relationship, 270

 lack of regulation, 271-7, 281-2

 lucrative nature of, 55-6, 142-3, 162, 170, 173, 220, 221, 222, 258, 297

 people presently promoting interest in, 250-79

 reasons behind appeal for users, 219-31; effect of personal experience, 231-5

 referrals by GPs, 268-71

 risks associated with, 182-9, 205-219, 239-40

 suggested procedure for testing and labelling treatments, 283-6