Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine broadly describes methods and practices used in place of, or in addition to, conventional medical treatments. The precise scope of alternative medicine is a matter of some debate and depends to a great extent on the definition of "conventional medicine." Positions on the distinction between the two include those who reject the safety and efficacy of the other, and a number of positions in between.

Criticism of alternative medicine

Due to the wide range of therapies that are considered to be "alternative medicine" few criticisms apply across the board. For more information about a particular therapy or branch of alternative medicine, including specific criticism, please refer to the following link: List of branches of alternative medicine.

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Criticisms directed at specific branches of alternative medicine range from the fairly minor (conventional treament is believed to be more effective in a particular area) to incompatibility with the known laws of physics (for example, in homeopathy).

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Proponents of the various forms of alternative medicine reject criticism as being founded in prejudice, financial self-interest, or ignorance.

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Efficacy

Problems with the label "alternative"

Some doctors and scientists feel that the term "alternative medicine" is misleading, as these treatments have not been proven to be an effective alternative to regulated conventional medicine. However, conventional medicine can overlap with alternative medicine, when and only when the alternative treatment is proven to be effective.

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Richard Dawkins, professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, defines alternative medicine as "that set of practices that cannot be tested, refuse to be tested or consistently fail tests" (See Diamond 2003).

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Lack of proper testing

Despite the large number of studies regarding alternative therapies, critics contend that there are no statistics on exactly how many of these studies were controlled, double-blind peer-reviewed experiments or how many produced results supporting alternative medicine or parts thereof. They contend that many forms of alternative medicine are rejected by conventional medicine because the efficacy of the treatments has not been demonstrated through double-blind randomized controlled trials. Some skeptics of alternative practices point out that a person may attribute symptomatic relief to an otherwise ineffective therapy due to the natural recovery from or the cyclical nature of an illness, the placebo effect, or the possibility that the person never originally had a true illness http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/altpsych.html.

Related Topics:
Randomized controlled trial - Placebo effect

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Problems with known tests and studies

Critics contend that observer bias and poor study design invalidate the results of many studies carried out by alternative medicine promoters.

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A review of the effectiveness of certain alternative medicine techniques for cancer treatment (Vickers 2004), while finding that most of these treatments are not merely "unproven" but are proven not to work, notes that several studies have found evidence that the psychosocial treatment of patients by psychologists is linked to survival advantages (although it comments that these results are not consistently replicated). The same review, while specifically noting that "complementary therapies for cancer-related symptoms were not part of this review", cites studies indicating that several complementary therapies can provide benefits by, for example, reducing pain and improving the mood of patients.

Related Topics:
Psychosocial treatment - Psychologist

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Some argue that less research is carried out on alternative medicine because many alternative medicine techniques cannot be patented, and hence there is little financial incentive to study them. Drug research, by contrast, can be very lucrative, which has resulted in funding of trials by pharmaceutical companies. Many people, including conventional and alternative medical practitioners, contend that this funding has led to corruption of the scientific process for approval of drug usage, and that ghostwritten work has appeared in major peer-reviewed medical journals. (Flanagin et al. 1998, Larkin 1999). Increasing the funding for research of alternative medicine techniques was the purpose of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. NCCAM and its predecessor, the Office of Alternative Medicine, have spent more than $200 million on such research since 1991. http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-09/alternative-medicine.html

Related Topics:
Peer-reviewed - National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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Safety

Critics contend that "dubious therapies can cause death, serious injury, unnecessary suffering, and disfigurement" http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/harmquack.html and that some people have been hurt or killed directly from the various practices or indirectly by failed diagnoses or the subsequent avoidance of conventional medicine which they believe is truly efficacious http://www.valleyskeptic.com/perrot.htm.

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Alternative medicine critics agree with its proponents that people should be free to choose whatever method of healthcare they want, but stipulate that people must be informed as to the safety and efficacy of whatever method they choose. People who choose alternative medicine may think they are choosing a safe, effective medicine, while they may only be getting quack remedies.

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Delay in seeking conventional medical treatment

They state that those who have had success with one alternative therapy for a minor ailment may be convinced of its efficacy and persuaded to extrapolate that success to some other alternative therapy for a more serious, possibly life-threatening illness. For this reason, they contend that therapies that rely on the placebo effect to define success are very dangerous.

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Issues of regulation

Critics contend that some branches of alternative medicine are often not properly regulated in some countries. So there is no governmental control on who practices, and no real way of knowing what training or expertise they possess in these countries. Critics argue that the regulation of any particular therapy does necessitate that the therapy is effective.

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