title: The growth of a lie and the end of "conventional" medicine.
abstract: Throughout its over 200-year history, homeopathy has been proven effective in treating diseases for which conventional medicine has little to offer. However, given its low cost, homeopathy has always represented a serious challenge and a constant threat to the profits of drug companies. Moreover, since drug companies represent the most relevant source of funding for biomedical research worldwide, they are in a privileged position to finance detractive campaigns against homeopathy by manipulating the media as well as academic institutions and the medical establishment. The basic argument against homeopathy is that in some controlled clinical trials (CCTs), comparison with conventional treatments shows that its effects are not superior to those of placebo. Against this thesis we argue that a) CCT methodology cannot be applied to homeopathy, b) misconduct and fraud are common in CCTs, c) adverse drug reactions and side effects show that CCT methodology is deeply flawed, d) an accurate testing of homeopathic remedies requires more sophisticated techniques, e) the placebo effect is no more "plausible" than homeopathy, and its real nature is still unexplained, and f) the placebo effect is nevertheless a "cure" and, as such, worthy of further investigation and analysis. It is concluded that no arguments presently exist against homeopathy and that the recurrent campaigns against it represent the specific interests of the pharmaceutical industry which, in this way, strives to protect its profits from the "threat" of a safer, more effective, and much less expensive treatment modality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Siena, Italy. mastrangelo@unisi.it
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mastrangelo
authors.forename: Cosimo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loré
mesh_terms: D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D006705:Homeopathy; D006801:Humans; D015990:Placebo Effect; D015871:Scientific Misconduct