So, Homeopathy is taking a bit of a battering at the moment:

Homeopathic society 'misled' MPs in inquiry | Science | guardian.co.uk

Video: Campaigners survive homeopathy mass overdose in Oxford | Science | guardian.co.uk

Apparently, the UK National Health Service has spent over £12million on Homeopathy.

Should tax payers money be spent on something that has no scientific support and is, to my mind anyway, a load of twaddle?


Stephen

We do not yet know everything.
12 million seems to be very little in the scale of the national health service. As many of the medicines used in the service are clinicaly ineffective but there because they have been used for years. Especialy those in the psychiatric field of medicine. I would say research on efficy was necessary.

Hi,

Margaretelisabeth wrote:

We do not yet know everything.

But "we" might know more than you think.

Margaretelisabeth wrote:

12 million seems to be very little in the scale of the national health service

I am sure that 12 million would go a long way to fund other areas - cancer research, heart disease, etc.?

Margaretelisabeth wrote:

As many of the medicines used in the service are clinicaly ineffective but there because they have been used for years. Especialy those in the psychiatric field of medicine.

Which medicines used in the NHS are clinically ineffective? Is there a study available that shows this?

Margaretelisabeth wrote:

I would say research on efficy was necessary.

It is up to the homeopathy "industry" to prove the efficacy of their products by properly run clinical trials. This needs to be funded by the industry, not the tax payer.

Mind you, homeopathy has been around a lot longer than most of the medicines that are used in the NHS today. All of them are backed by clinical trials that show their efficacy in particular clinical situations. You would think that there would be a few good trials of homeopathy in clinical situations by now - rather than all those clinical trials that show it performs no better than placebo.

I know that some people might whine about the inability to perform clinical trials on homeopathy because they don't work the same way as other medicines, but perhaps, instead of whining about it, someone might come up with an scientifically acceptable study instead.


Regards,


Stephen