Stop dubbele standaarden!

Stop dubbele standaarden! Dat was de oproep van de inmiddels wereldbekende Prof.dr. I. Chalmers. Hij vergeleek de wijze waarop alternatieve geneeskunde geevalueerd wordt met de die van reguliere geneeskunde. Iets om nu met de discussie van Uigedokterd?! nog weer even centraal te zetten. Gelijke monniken, gelijke kappen: The double standards that exist in judging orthodox and alternative medicine should be challenged, and reliable tools that can validate both approaches need to be found.

Professor Ian Chalmers is niet een no-body. Goed om naar hem te luisteren. Zeker nu de kreten van Niet Bewezen, Valse Hoop, Alleen PLacebo Effect weer overal in de kranten te lezen zijn.

Hij gaf ook aan dat meer dan 60% van de reguliere geneeskunde niet bewezen is.  We citeren even:

Dr Iain Chalmers, the director of the UK Cochrane Centre and a vociferous proponent of systematic reviews, told delegates:

"Critics of complementary medicine often seem to operate a double standard, being far more assiduous in their attempts to outlaw unevaluated complementary medical practices than unevaluated orthodox practices."

He said:

"These double standards might be acceptable if orthodox medicine was based solely on practices which had been shown to do more good than harm, and if the mechanisms through which their beneficial elements had their effects were understood, but neither of these conditions applies."

It is thought that more than 60% of orthodox treatments have not been scientifically proved.

Dr Chalmers added that the aim should not be to indulge in "data free" arguments, but to find a range of reliable tools to assess the effectiveness and safety of any healthcare intervention, be it orthodox or complementary.

Bron

Double standards exist in judging traditional and alternative medicine by Hilary Bower, London, BMJ 1998;316:1694