Snake Oil Science : The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine

by Bausell Ph.D., R. Barker

• ISBN13: 9780195383423
• ISBN10: 0195383427
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-31
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Hailed in the New York Times as "entertaining and immensely educational," Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book's ultimate goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make medical therapies appear to be effective--not just to consumers, but to therapists and poorly trained scientists as well. Bausell explores this remarkable phenomenon and explains why research on any therapy that does not factor in the placebo effect (and other placebo-like effects) will inevitably produce false results. Moreover, as the author shows in an impressive survey of research from high-quality scientific journals, studies employing credible placebo controls do not indicate positive effects for alternative therapies beyond those attributable to random chance. Readers will come away from this book with a healthy skepticism of claims about the latest "miracle cure," be it St. John's Wort for depression or acupuncture for chronic pain.

Author Biography

R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore, was Research Director of a National Institutes of Health-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Specialized Research Center.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Rise of Complementary and Alternative Therapies

A Brief History of Placebos

Natural Impediments to Making Valid Inferences

Impediments That Prevent our Physicians and Therapists From Making Valid Inferences

Impediments that Prevent Poorly Trained Scientists from Making Valid Inferences

Why Randomized Placebo Control Groups Are Necessary in CAM Research

Judging the Credibility and Plausibility of Scientific Evidence

Some Personal Research

How We Know that the Placebo Effect Exists

A Bio-Chemical Explanation for the Placebo Effect

Do CAM Therapies Work Or Are They Placebo Effects? Evidence From High Quality Randomized Placebo Controlled Trials

Do CAM Therapies Work Or Are They Placebo Effects? Evidence From High Quality Systematic Reviews

How CAM Therapies Are Hypothesized to Work

Tying Up a Few Loose Ends

Notes

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.