Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below. Drug studies with negative results are ...
Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below. Where did the medical community get the ...
Sometimes, as I'm talking to patients and their families, I realize that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Really.
When 75 percent of our medical costs are for chronic diseases that are largely due to poor lifestyle habits, where are the studies on prevention? On behavior? On effective patient-doctor or public health strategies?
At present, most drug company records are treated as proprietary secrets. As a public health measure, drug companies should be required to make public all of their internal documentation concerning any drugs that begin the FDA approval process.
While I am the first to admit to having pursued past research in this mindset (perhaps too publicly), I know that I am not the last -- so much so that many readers within my field won't bat an eye when agreeing to have done this at some point in their medical careers.
It's the result of a fundamental misunderstanding of placebo effects and control groups -- a misunderstanding that, scientists are now arguing, invalidates any claims of effectiveness for almost all psychological interventions.
What Ben Goldacre does not take into account is the many ways in which, like most other humans, even the most rational scientists operate outside the constraints of their rational analysis.
As the body of published literature fails to paint the entire picture, eventually the gap between reality and what we think is reality widens. The negative results are still pertinent for several reasons.
Have you ever visited a homeopath before? Do you have any homeopathic pills or suspensions in your medicine cabinet? You may think homeopathic is just...
