Snake Oil Science
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-531368-0 (ISBN)
Do these therapies actually work? And if they work, how do they work? This book is about the science of complementary and alternative medicine, about how that science is conducted, how it is evaluated, and how it is synthesised to arrive at a conclusion about whether CAM therapies work. It is also about the phenomenon of the placebo effect, and the extent to which it is at play in a given CAM therapy's efficacy. Are CAM therapies in fact nothing more than creatively packaged placebos? In exploring this question, Barker Bausell provides an authoritative and engaging look at the nature of scientific evidence and at the logical, psychological, and physiological impediments that can confound such evidence in the world of CAM research. Ultimately, the book is not so much opposed to CAM as to the shoddy science upon which CAM claims are based, and in fact it closes with a chapter about how one might maximise the placebo effect that Bausell asserts is the main 'ingredient' of most CAM therapies. This book is a learned, witty examination not just of the scientific process as it is applied to CAM but also of the wonders of the human mind/body system.
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 where he was in charge of conducting and analyzing randomized clinical trials involving acupuncture's effectiveness for pain relief. He has also served as a consultant to Prevention and Discover magazines.
1. The Rise of Complementary and Alternative Therapies ; 2. A Brief History of Placebos ; 3. Natural Impediments to Making Valid Inferences ; 4. Impediments That Prevent Physicians and Therapists from Making Valid Inferences ; 5. Impediments That Prevent Poorly Trained Scientists from Making Valid Inferences ; 6. Why Randomized Placebo Control Groups are Necessary in CAM Research ; 7. Judging the Credibility and Plausibility of Scientific Evidence ; 8. Some Personal Research Involving Acupuncture ; 9. How We Know that the Placebo Effect Exists ; 10. A Biochemical Explanation for the Placebo Effect ; 11. What High-Quality Trials Reveal About CAM ; 12. What High-Quality Systematic Reviews Reveal About CAM ; 13. How CAM Therapies are Hypothesized to Work ; 14. Tying Up a Few Loose Ends
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 15.11.2007 |
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Zusatzinfo | 14 black and white illustrations |
Verlagsort | New York |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 148 x 212 mm |
Gewicht | 604 g |
Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Alternative Heilverfahren |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie | |
Medizin / Pharmazie ► Naturheilkunde | |
ISBN-10 | 0-19-531368-2 / 0195313682 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-531368-0 / 9780195313680 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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