1.09.2009

32 Participants of Homeopathic Study Found Dead

In a recent study of the long-term effects of homeopathic remedies, 32 participants of the study were reported to have died. Furthermore, 260 former participants have since declined to participate with the study and 12 (including 3 children) have mysteriously gone missing. Despite this, the researches of the study conclude that "patients who receive homeopathic treatments are likely to improve considerably".

Based on the evidence provided in the report, I've formed my own conclusion: some patients who receive homeopathic treatments are likely to die or go missing.

The "provisional" study report can be found here (pdf warn).

Note that some of the authors of the study have also been involved in performing needle experiments on humans as well as performing the bizarre, ancient procedure known as "wet cupping" on their subjects (in which the patient is intentionally wounded and a vacuum device applied to forcibly withdraw blood!).

8 comments:

Jens Knudsen (Sili) said...

I like the way you think.

The skepTick said...

You should see the way I dance.

Uhhh...on 2nd thought, I think much better.

Yaksman said...

Here's a fun game, search the pdf for the word "control"

1. Meta-analyses of placebo controlled trials on homeopathy have shown inconsistent results
[7-9].

2. This may be partly
explained by placebo and/or regression to the mean effects that our study was not designed
to control.

That's all outside of the References. So controlled studies show inconsistent results, and that's why this study didn't control for placebo effects. Gotta love that kind of study.

The skepTick said...

One placebo-homeopathy trial says homeopathy works, one says it doesn't. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. After a while, do a meta-analysis of a subset of these results. Do another meta-analysis of another subset. One will tell you homeopathy works, one will tell you it doesn't.

But none of this really matters because this study isn't about determining whether or not homeopathy is better than placebo. It's about the recovery of patients from homeopathic clinics, who suffer from headaches, allergies, etc. How hard is it to include a control group of patients from non-homeopathic clinics with the same symptoms, and do a 2 yr and 8 yr followup?

That the authors didn't do this is very telling. They could have written their conclusion 8 years ago. My guess is that, given funding, they'll continue to issue the same conclusion in future papers, with the only thing being different is the statistics.

Von said...

That 'scientific research' for you...large sums of money to find the results the group funding the research wants to see.
What's with the campaign against homeopathy? Do we hear the success stories? So we don't know how it works but does that mean it doesn't?
So some nut kills his daughter which reflects on his parenting surely not the methods used to try to 'save' her.Do we ban guns because someone got shot? It won't happen and you won't stop people using systems they believe work and have been seen to work over hundreds of years.Do allopathic doctors ever kill patients with their methods? Constantly, so where's the campaign against them and the drug companies that supply the weapons? Wake up people!

citizen x said...

32 found dead....hilarious, if it was an allopathic trial it might be hundreds... Double blind studies work great on 2 things. THey already blind and inanimate objects. Have you fancy new doctors ever heard of quantum physics? Cause your methods are newtonian.

The skepTick said...

That doesn't even make sense.

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