Homeopath's in UK react to Lancet study on homeopathy.
Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:53 am
The British Homeopathic Association (BHA), which says it has 1,000 doctors
on its books, strongly disagreed (with the Lancet report).
?The report should be treated with extreme caution. It is being heavily
spun,? Peter Fisher, clinical director at the Royal London Homeopathic
Hospital, said on behalf of the BHA.
?For a prestigious medical journal it is a strange bit of reporting. It is
a small sample and they don?t even tell you what they are basing this on.
Yet they come to these very sweeping conclusions and write this very
strongly worded editorial,? he told Reuters.
?Homeopathy has been suffering these types of attacks for 200 years but it
goes from strength to strength because people want it and many studies
prove it works.?
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1446132.htm
Friday August 26, 12:06 AM
New study says homeopathic medicines don't work
File photo of drugs
Click to enlarge photo
LONDON (Reuters) - The world may be beating a path to the doors of
homeopathic practitioners as an alternative to conventional medicines, but
according to a new study they may just as well be taking nothing.
The study, published in Friday's edition of the respected Lancet medical
journal, is likely to anger the growing numbers of devoted practitioners of
and adherents to alternative therapies that include homeopathy.
"There was weak evidence for a specific effect of homeopathic remedies, but
strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions," the
study concluded.
"This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of
homeopathy are placebo effects," it added after examining findings from 110
homeopathy trials and an equal number of conventional medical trials.
In an editorial, the Lancet urged doctors to tell their patients they were
wasting their time taking homeopathic medicines -- but also to make more
time to connect with the patients rather than just prescribing and forgetting.
"Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about
homeopathy's lack of benefits, and with themselves about the failings of
modern medicine to address patients' needs for personalised care," the
journal said.
Entitled "The end of homeopathy", the editorial queried how homeopathy was
growing in popularity by leaps and bounds when for the past 150 years
trials had found it ineffective.
"It is the attitudes of patients and providers that engender
alternative-therapy seeking behaviours which create a greater threat to
conventional care -- and patients' welfare -- than do spurious arguments of
putative benefits from absurd dilutions," it said.
BOOMING SALES
Practitioners of homeopathic medicine, invented in the late 1700s by German
physician Samuel Hahnemann, believe that the weaker the solution, the more
effective the medicine.
In Britain alone, sales of homeopathic medicines have grown by a third in
the past five years to 32 million pounds in 2004.
The study's lead author and statistical analyst Matthias Egger of
Switzerland's University of Berne, said once data from small, less rigorous
trials was extracted and evident bias in both taken into account, the
conclusions were inescapable.
"We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible, but we have shown
that the effects seen in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy are
compatible with the placebo-hypothesis," he wrote.
But the British Homeopathic Association (BHA), which says it has 1,000
doctors on its books, strongly disagreed.
"The report should be treated with extreme caution. It is being heavily
spun," Peter Fisher, clinical director at the Royal London Homeopathic
Hospital, said on behalf of the BHA.
"For a prestigious medical journal it is a strange bit of reporting. It is
a small sample and they don't even tell you what they are basing this on.
Yet they come to these very sweeping conclusions and write this very
strongly worded editorial," he told Reuters.
"Homeopathy has been suffering these types of attacks for 200 years but it
goes from strength to strength because people want it and many studies
prove it works."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net
ONLINE Introduction to Homeopathy Classes
ONLINE Introduction to Vaccine Dangers Classes
Voicemail US 530-740-0561 UK phone from US 011-44-1874-624-936
on its books, strongly disagreed (with the Lancet report).
?The report should be treated with extreme caution. It is being heavily
spun,? Peter Fisher, clinical director at the Royal London Homeopathic
Hospital, said on behalf of the BHA.
?For a prestigious medical journal it is a strange bit of reporting. It is
a small sample and they don?t even tell you what they are basing this on.
Yet they come to these very sweeping conclusions and write this very
strongly worded editorial,? he told Reuters.
?Homeopathy has been suffering these types of attacks for 200 years but it
goes from strength to strength because people want it and many studies
prove it works.?
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1446132.htm
Friday August 26, 12:06 AM
New study says homeopathic medicines don't work
File photo of drugs
Click to enlarge photo
LONDON (Reuters) - The world may be beating a path to the doors of
homeopathic practitioners as an alternative to conventional medicines, but
according to a new study they may just as well be taking nothing.
The study, published in Friday's edition of the respected Lancet medical
journal, is likely to anger the growing numbers of devoted practitioners of
and adherents to alternative therapies that include homeopathy.
"There was weak evidence for a specific effect of homeopathic remedies, but
strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions," the
study concluded.
"This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of
homeopathy are placebo effects," it added after examining findings from 110
homeopathy trials and an equal number of conventional medical trials.
In an editorial, the Lancet urged doctors to tell their patients they were
wasting their time taking homeopathic medicines -- but also to make more
time to connect with the patients rather than just prescribing and forgetting.
"Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about
homeopathy's lack of benefits, and with themselves about the failings of
modern medicine to address patients' needs for personalised care," the
journal said.
Entitled "The end of homeopathy", the editorial queried how homeopathy was
growing in popularity by leaps and bounds when for the past 150 years
trials had found it ineffective.
"It is the attitudes of patients and providers that engender
alternative-therapy seeking behaviours which create a greater threat to
conventional care -- and patients' welfare -- than do spurious arguments of
putative benefits from absurd dilutions," it said.
BOOMING SALES
Practitioners of homeopathic medicine, invented in the late 1700s by German
physician Samuel Hahnemann, believe that the weaker the solution, the more
effective the medicine.
In Britain alone, sales of homeopathic medicines have grown by a third in
the past five years to 32 million pounds in 2004.
The study's lead author and statistical analyst Matthias Egger of
Switzerland's University of Berne, said once data from small, less rigorous
trials was extracted and evident bias in both taken into account, the
conclusions were inescapable.
"We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible, but we have shown
that the effects seen in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy are
compatible with the placebo-hypothesis," he wrote.
But the British Homeopathic Association (BHA), which says it has 1,000
doctors on its books, strongly disagreed.
"The report should be treated with extreme caution. It is being heavily
spun," Peter Fisher, clinical director at the Royal London Homeopathic
Hospital, said on behalf of the BHA.
"For a prestigious medical journal it is a strange bit of reporting. It is
a small sample and they don't even tell you what they are basing this on.
Yet they come to these very sweeping conclusions and write this very
strongly worded editorial," he told Reuters.
"Homeopathy has been suffering these types of attacks for 200 years but it
goes from strength to strength because people want it and many studies
prove it works."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net
ONLINE Introduction to Homeopathy Classes
ONLINE Introduction to Vaccine Dangers Classes
Voicemail US 530-740-0561 UK phone from US 011-44-1874-624-936