Forum sulle
Medicine non convenzionali
PRESS
RELEASE OF THE PERMANENT CONSENSUS AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE FOR
NON-CONVENTIONAL MEDICINES IN ITALY WITH REGARDS TO THE ARTICLE ISSUED BY THE
LANCET AND TRASMITTED TO THE ITALIAN PRESS
Waiting
to read the complete text of the article issued on Friday 26th by the
prestigious journal Lancet, signed by Aijing Shang and Coll.: Are the clinical
effects of homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled
trials of homeopathy and allopathy, we find it necessary to make here some brief
considerations. First of all the research mentioned in the article is not a new
clinical study on the effectiveness of homeopathy versus placebo treatments, but
rather a research (meta-analysis) on previous studies carried out in the last
few years and published in different field magazines. Of all the studies (110)
proved to be sufficiently correct a certain number were selected on account of
their higher methodological rigor. The results obtained in the treatment of some
pathologies seemed not to be remarkably different from those achieved with
placeboes. Even if efficacy tests, meeting the criteria of modern evidence-based
medicine, can be used to assess homeopathy, it should be reminded that, being a
highly individualized therapy – with treatments chosen on the basis of each
patient’s specific symptoms- it has always been difficult (though not
impossible) to use too rigorous/rigid assessment criteria. If such criteria were
applied, homeopathy application method would be affected and the efficacy
results would be lower. Besides double blind trials are inadequate to assess the
response of complex biological systems, such as that of human beings, to
homeopathic treatments, as the latter require for their administration highly
specific competence and clinical experience.
It
is worth reminding, though, that a few years ago (1997) some independent German
researchers (K. Linde and coll.) published a similar article on the same
prestigious journal “Are the clinical effects of homeopathy all placebo
effects? A meta-analysis of randomized, placebo controlled trials. Lancet: 350:
834-843” . It was a meta-analysis of studies carried out on the efficacy of
homeopathy by which the authors, as others had done before them (J. Kleijnen and
coll. Brit. Med. J. 302: 316-323, 1991), confirmed the opposite, that is a
higher efficacy of homeopathic treatments compared to placeboes.
It
is evident that the situation is constantly updated as every day new clinical
trials are conceived to prove the efficacy of homeopathic therapies in the
treatment of various pathologies; therefore the idea that the above mentioned
research declares the end of homeopathy, as someone believes (and probably
wishes) is all the more unfounded. Besides the parameters selected to assess the
efficacy of homeopathy are often methodologically correct, as in this case, but
come through a scientific cleansing. In other words the study was carried out by
allopaths using allopathic criteria. More or less the same as if a wine seller
compared his wine with a bottle of water and in the end decided that his wine is
much better. New paradigms are needed to develop a humanistic medicine based on
science which puts an end to the current widespread reductionism.
What
is clear is that today a good share of the conventional pharmaceutical and
medical world (the industrial health system, producing most health resources,
risks sometimes to affect the ethics, independence and results of the researches,
as confirmed by the conditioning of advertising in prestigious biomedical
journals) is suffering from the growing use of homeopathic remedies by patients,
and by the increasing integration of non conventional medicines, homeopathy
ranking first, in the National Health System, in Italy as well as in Europe and
in the US. The integration involves the academic world, the regional health
systems and the World Health Organization itself. While we are waiting for the
non-government bill on the official acknowledgement of non conventional
medicines and practices to go through the parliamentary process the opposition
to such legislative action is exacerbated.
The
Coordinator, Dr. Paolo Roberti
www.fondazionericci.it/comitato
TORNA
AL FORUM
