February 22, 2010

reaction to announcement on homeopathy from Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health

The announcement from Prince Charles’ Foundation concerns a piece of research which purports to show evidence in support of homeopathy.

Prof Edzard Ernst, Professor of Complementary Medicine at the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, said:

“The Medical Director of the Foundation for Integrated Health should know that the study he cites is a test-tube experiment and not a ‘research trial’. It has no direct implications for healthcare. He also seems to think that prescribing homeopathic placebos to our patients might be a sensible strategy. This contradicts common sense and modern medical ethics.

“The House of Commons Evidence Check correctly states that “when doctors prescribe placebos, they risk damaging the trust that exists between them and their patients” and “patients must be adequately informed to understand the implications of treatments. For homeopathy this would certainly require an explanation that homeopathy is a placebo”.

“The Foundation is a lobby group for unproven treatments which has repeatedly tried to mislead the public. The ‘Evidence Check’ acknowledged this by stating that “advocates of homeopathy… rely on, and promulgate, selective approaches to the treatment of the evidence base… [which] risks confusing or misleading the public, the media and policy-makers”. Personally I think the ‘Evidence Check’ is sound and represents an important step forward. I hope our Government will take it seriously – after all, UK healthcare should not be determined by The Prince of Wales’ often strange and confused concepts of medicine or science but by the best available data.”