Shadow medicine: the placebo in conventional and alternative therapies PDF
Preview Shadow medicine: the placebo in conventional and alternative therapies
T H E P L A C E B O I N C O N V E N T I O N A L A N D A L T E R N A T I V E T H E R A P I E S JOH N S. HALL ER JR. Shadow Medicine John S. haller Jr. Shadow Medicine The Placebo in Conventional and Alternative Therapies coluMbia univerS ity PreSS new york Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Haller, John S., Jr., 1940– author. Shadow medicine : the placebo in conventional and alternative therapies / John S. Haller Jr. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-16904-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53770-4 (ebook) I. Title. II. Title: Placebo in conventional and alternative therapies. [DNLM: 1. Placebos. 2. Complementary Therapies. 3. Evidence-Based Medicine. 4. Placebo Effect. WB 330] R733 615.5—dc23 2013048051 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover design: Mary Ann Smith References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. For Clio, my feline companion and ever-present muse There is no alternative medicine. There is only scientifically proven, evidence-based medicine supported by solid data or unproven medicine, for which scientific evidence is lacking. —Phil B. Fontanarosa and George D. Lundberg, “Alternative Medicine Meets Science” (1998) The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. . . . It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect. —Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail (1979) contentS Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction xv 1. EvidEncE-BasEd MEdicinE 1 Normative Science 3 Big Pharma 16 Cochrane Collaboration 18 Cochrane Complementary Medicine 22 Ethics and Equipoise 24 2. PostModErnist MEdicinE 31 Psychosomatic Medicine 35 Spirituality 42 Open Door 44 CAM Popularity 48 American Medical Schools 54 3. “thE PowErful PlacEBo” 61 Beecher’s Discovery 62 What and How 71
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