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More Harm than Good? pp 61–99Cite as

The Reality of CAM Research

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Abstract

In this chapter, we shall explore the various ways in which CAM research frequently falls short of the ideals of good research practice, using several examples of seriously flawed CAM research studies. We will start with the least severe forms of research misconduct, in terms of the moral culpability of the perpetrators, and progress to the most blatantly corrupt and unethical practices. The chapter will conclude with some broad questions about the ethics of doing research in CAM.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The stated aim of the In Vivo journal is thoroughly scientific; it is ‘designed to bring together original high-quality works and reviews on experimental and clinical biomedical research within the frame of comparative physiology and pathology’.

  2. 2.

    The agents in the combination therapy were: sodium selenite (an agent popular amongst CAM advocates, despite very little evidence of in vivo benefits); bromelaine and papain (proteolytic plant enzymes used in herbal medicine and other CAM modalities); and Lens culinaris lectin (an extract from legumes commonly used in naturopathy).

  3. 3.

    According to Journal Citation Reports® 2015 data.

  4. 4.

    The threshold was a reduction in headache frequency greater than 40%.

  5. 5.

    The paper states that therapeutic interventions offered by the IP consultation included: “herbal and dietary supplements and weekly acupuncture sessions, often in combination with mind-body (relaxation techniques, guided imagery, music therapy, etc.) or manual (e.g., acupressure) techniques.”

  6. 6.

    The compliance threshold was ≥4 CM treatments, with ≤30 days between each session.

  7. 7.

    An alternative explanation for the (few) positive results of this study, other than these results merely being statistical artefacts, is that the observed improvements could have been a result of various flaws in the study design: in particular, the lack of patient-blinding, and the CST group receiving 200 min longer attention than the control patients. Distinguishing between these two explanations is impossible from the data generated by this study. In either case, our judgement of this paper remains unaltered: its data are essentially meaningless, and the authors have used them to present misleading conclusions.

  8. 8.

    This paper is in German; its title has been translated for this book.

  9. 9.

    Recent (2017) examples include (Dong et al. 2017; Li et al. 2017; Ma et al. 2017; Shi et al. 2017; Sreenivasmurthy et al. 2017; Dai et al. 2017).

  10. 10.

    On their website, the NCH claims that they “inform legislators and work to secure homeopathy’s place in the U.S health care system while working to ensure that homeopathy is accurately represented in the media” (NCH 2017).

  11. 11.

    The numbers are ours.

  12. 12.

    Under a variety of different names.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Edzard Ernst

  2. School of Science, Engineering and Technology, Abertay University, Dundee, UK

    Kevin Smith

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  1. Edzard Ernst
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  2. Kevin Smith
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Correspondence to Edzard Ernst or Kevin Smith .

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Ernst, E., Smith, K. (2018). The Reality of CAM Research. In: More Harm than Good?. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69941-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69941-7_3

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