Archive: 'In the year 1854 a terrible recrudescence of cholera, due, as was supposed, to the contamination of the water furnished by the notorious Broad Street pump, in the parish of St James's, Westminster, ravaged the Metropolis and particularly the immediate neighbourhood of the Hospital (Golden Square) and which to the present day constitute the treatment mainly relied upon by homœopathic practitioners.
The whole of the wards of the London Homœopathic Hospital were devoted to the treatment of the epidemic, and 396 cases of cholera including choleraic and simple diarrhœa were treated. Of the 61 more serious cases of cholera treated, 10 died, a percentage of 16.4. The neighbouring Middlesex Hospital received 231 cases of cholera, of the cholera patients treated 123 died, a fatality rate of 53.2 per cent.
Returns were sent in from the London Homœopathic Hospital, giving the names and addresses of the patients treated, the symptoms, remedies, and result in each case, and a summary of those results. This was not a question of theory, or of any particular school; it was a question of facts and statistics affecting the public health.
But the report of the Board of Health was presented to Parliament without the slightest reference to the London Homœopathic Hospital or to the brilliant results which its physicians had achieved. Complaint was, of course, made to the Board of Health and duly reterred to its Medical Committee, with the result that the Board received from the committee a resolution, which, for ingenuity of disingenuousness and illiberality, can hardly ever have been equalled.
"That by introducing the returns of homœopathic practitioners they (the Treatment Committee) would not only compromise the value and utility of their averages of Cure, as deduced from the operation of known remedies, but they would give an unjustifiable sanction to an empirical practice, alike opposed to the maintenance of truth and to the progress of science".
The House of Commons, which was more anxious for the "progress of science" and the "value and utility of averages" than for "the operation of known remedies," to say nothing of its great duty to the people it represented, forthwith ordered a special return of the ignored homœopathic statistics, which was in due course made by the Board of Health, and these returns were ordered by the House to be printed on May 21, 1855. They remain among Parliamentary Papers to this day, a standing monument alike of the success of the new policy and of the obscurantism of the old.
Three things have been demonstrated by the success of the London Homœopathic Hospital. The first is that the faith of the public has every year increased in the efficacy of the methods pursued in its wards. The second is that the system adopted by its medical staff is not fallacious in principle. No mere delusion could stand the test of sixty-five years' hospital practice or continue to advance in public confidence and support. The third is that, notwithstanding the undoubted success and popularity of the Hospital and the growing confidence of the giving and the receiving public in the value of its work, it is still waiting complete medical recognition as it had no record of successful practice, and as if thousands of patients in all parts of the kingdom were not ready to attest the benefits they have received within its walls.
This singular attitude is not adopted because the truth of homœopathy or the genuineness of the work of the Hospital are any longer doubted. Neither of these things is now seriously denied. But matters medical move according to tradition. The traditional policy of medicine is merely to refuse enquiry into homœopathy. To ignore homœopathy and all its works is a medical shibboleth, senseless, insincere, imperative. The vigour of a traditional policy, however erroneous, as a motive power in human affairs, has often been exemplified, but in few things so curiously as in the treatment of patients'.
Since 1854, two principles have remained constant:
the progress of pharmaceutical medicine has taken priorityover homoeopathic medicine even thought its results are far worse
the traditional policy of medicine is merely to refuse enquiry into homœopathy, restricting patients access to it
Queen's doctor warns of homoeopathy crisis
A leaked memo reveals that there is 'a co-ordinated campaign' to derail alternative therapies on the NHS. The Queen's personal physician and Britain's leading homoeopath yesterday warned of a "co-ordinated campaign to derail complementary therapies in the NHS".
A leaked memo seen by The Independent on Sunday identifies several influential groups working together for the removal of homoeopathy from the NHS. According to Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, there has been a 20 per cent reduction in referrals to the hospital in the past year, as new patients are refused funding by a growing number of primary care trusts.
The hospital – an NHS centre of excellence – could be forced drastically to cut services if other PCTs introduce the same system and if funding for patients currently undergoing treatment is withdrawn. Dr Fisher, whose patients include the supermodel Claudia Schiffer, pointed to the fact that some six million people in the UK use complementary therapies each year. Advocates include David Beckham and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Dr Fisher said: "There are some patients with conditions that prescription drugs alone do not help. There is a huge potential to help these patients and those who experience adverse side-effects from conventional medicines with complementary therapies."
The four NHS homoeopathic hospitals combine therapies to treat chronic conditions, such as depression, irritable bowel syndrome and osteoarthritis that conventional medicines alone can fail. But this relatively new integrated approach offends the beliefs and aims of certain groups.
"The campaign dates back two years [2005] starting with several eminent and mostly retired scientists and doctors who have a way of seeing the world and medicine which complementary therapies do not sit within," Dr Fisher said. "The pharmaceutical industry is worried for its future, as public opinion is shifting towards complementary therapies."
The memo, sent out by the president of the Association of the Directors of Public Health, Dr Tim Crayford, referred only to homoeopathy, but all complementary therapies are affected. Dr Crayford said: "The email... was certainly not about all complementary therapies. This paper was written to help PCTs focus on the delivery of essential services." 2.9.07
The Threat of Complementary Medicine
The Health Minister in Northern Ireland has made the independent evaluation report available to download on the Department's website. Within the extensive report there are detailed responses from patients, GPs and practitioners, using a validated audit tool, focus groups and surveys. It goes on to make recommendations about the way forward.
The Results
In the pilot, 713 patients with a range of ages and demographic backgrounds and either physical or mental health conditions were referred to various complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies via nine GP practices in Belfast and Londonderry.
There was some comparison of CAMs involved in the study. This showed for instance that of the patients who availed of chiropractic and osteopathy treatments 56% were likely to record an improvement in their level of wellbeing, 77% of those availing of acupuncture and for homeopathic treatments the figure was 79% (see page 31 of the report).
Some statistics on Health improvement
• 81% of patients reported an improvement in their physical health
• 79% reported an improvement in their mental health
• 84% of patients linked an improvement in their health and wellbeing directly to their CAM treatment
• In 65% of patient cases, GPs documented a health improvement, correlating closely to patient-reported improvements
• 94% of patients said they would recommend CAM to another patient with their condition
• 87% of patient indicated a desire to continue with their CAM treatment
Painkillers and medication
• Half of GPs reported prescribing less medication and all reported that patients had indicated to them that they needed less
• 62% of patients reported suffering from less pain
• 55% reported using less painkillers following treatment
• Patients using medication reduced from 75% before treatment to 61% after treatment
• 44% of those taking medication before treatment had reduced their use afterwards
Health service and social benefits
• 24% of patients who used health services prior to treatment (i.e. primary and secondary care, accident and emergency) reported using the services less after treatment
• 65% of GPs reported seeing the patient less following the CAM referral
• Half of GPs said the scheme had reduced their workload and 17% reported a financial saving for their practice
• Half of GPs said their patients were using secondary care services less
Despite initial scepticism, the GPs involved were almost unanimously in favour after seeing tangible results.
In 99% of patient cases GPs said they would refer the patient, or a different patient, to the scheme again and in 98% of cases GPs said they would recommend the service to other GPs. However, they also called for more information to help build their understanding of CAM therapies.
(Source: Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety : Evaluation – Complementary and Alternative Medicines Pilot Project in Northern Ireland, May 2008 (see web-link above); and circular email from Get Well UK)
How Drugs are Sold: Psychiatry - Making a Killing with Dr. Rima Laibow & G. Edward Griffen By CCHR
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides diagnostic criteria for mental disorders and disease.
It is used in varying degrees around the world, by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers.The DSM has attracted controversy and criticism. There have been five revisions since it was first published in 1952, gradually including more disorders, though some have been removed and are no longer considered to be mental disorders.
Please watch the video below which explains how drugs are marketed and sold for conditions now classed as a disease both in america and here in the UK. It covers:
How drugs are marketed and approved
the revolving door
conflicts of interests
fast track drugs
medical approval
money in disease
Beginning with the problem that there is no single objective diagnostic test for a mental illness in the field of psychiatry — a problem the DSM sidesteps by referring only to "mental disorders", defined modestly as dysfunctional psychological or behavioral patterns — the DSM-IV has come under various criticisms over the years.
Glaxo chief admits: Our 90% of drugs do not work on most patients
A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them although they have been clinically trialed.
"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."
It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public. His comments come days after it emerged that the NHS drugs bill has soared by nearly 50 per cent in three years, rising by £2.3bn a year to an annual cost to the taxpayer of £7.2bn in 2003 (rising to £11bn in 2008). GSK announced that it had 20 or more new drugs under development that could each earn the company up to $1bn (£600m) a year.
Dr Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, spoke at a recent scientific meeting in London where he cited figures on how well different classes of drugs work in real patients.
Drugs for Alzheimer's disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.
Some industry analysts said Dr Roses's comments were reminiscent of the 1991 gaffe by Gerald Ratner, the jewellery boss, who famously said that his high street shops are successful because they sold "total crap". But others believe Dr Roses deserves credit for being honest about a little-publicised fact known to the drugs industry for many years.
"Roses is a smart guy and what he is saying will surprise the public but not his colleagues," said one industry scientist. "He is a pioneer of a new culture within the drugs business based on using genes to test for who can benefit from a particular drug."
Dr Roses has a formidable reputation in the field of "pharmacogenomics" - the application of human genetics to drug development - and his comments can be seen as an attempt to make the industry realise that its future rests on being able to target drugs to a smaller number of patients with specific genes.
The idea is to identify "responders" - people who benefit from the drug - with a simple and cheap genetic test that can be used to eliminate those non-responders who might benefit from another drug. This goes against a marketing culture within the industry that has relied on selling as many drugs as possible to the widest number of patients - a culture that has made GSK one of the most profitable pharmaceuticals companies, but which has also meant that most of its drugs are at best useless, and even possibly dangerous, for many patients.
Dr Roses said doctors treating patients routinely applied the trial-and-error approach which says that if one drug does not work there is always another one. "I think everybody has it in their experience that multiple drugs have been used for their headache or multiple drugs have been used for their backache or whatever. "It's in their experience, but they don't quite understand why. The reason why is because they have different susceptibilities to the effect of that drug and that's genetic," he said.
"Neither those who pay for medical care nor patients want drugs to be prescribed that do not benefit the recipient. Pharmacogenetics has the promise of removing much of the uncertainty." 8.12.03
However, drug companies have enormous influence, Labour MP Paul Flynn said: 'We need to know who is making the assessment of risk. Is it based on rational, independent epidemiological evidence, or is it influenced by the pharmaceutical industry for their own purposes? 'The main concern is that the drugs companies and the vaccine manufacturers have their tentacles in every area where decisions are taken - that includes the WHO, Governments, Civil Service, and even Charities.
So even though pharmaceutical drugs perform worse than CAM treatments, since 1854 to 2005 there has been a
coordinated
campaign to derail homeopathy on the NHS which culminated in the following decision.
Homoeopathy remedies are no better than Smarties and should not be prescribed on NHS, say MPs
Patients should no longer get homeopathic treatment on the NHS because it is little better than 'active deception', according to a committee of MPs. They said there was no evidence the remedies work and dismissed them as 'sugar pills' which should not carry medical claims. The Commons Science and Technology Committee said homeopathic pills were simply a placebo - a non-active treatment that makes patients feel better.
Homeopathy treats 'like with like' by using highly diluted substances which if taken in larger doses would bring on the symptoms of the illness being treated. There are four NHS hospitals and clinics offering homeopathy, and the Prince of Wales and the Queen are supporters of it.
But it has come under increasing attack from the scientific establishment as a waste of NHS money. Estimates of the annual cost range from £157,000 on remedies to £4million in total. The committee said it was not sitting in judgment about whether it worked, but its report said the mode of action was ' scientifically implausible' and no further research was necessary.
Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis, who is chairman of the cross-party committee, said giving placebos to NHS patients was asking doctors to participate in 'active deception'. He said serious illnesses could be missed while people were taking homeopathy remedies which were 'basically sugar pills'.
Only four MPs out of seven 'active' members of the committee actually voted on the report, with Labour MP Ian Stewart dissenting from its verdict. He said it should recognise that homeopathy worked for some people. My view is that we should remain sceptical but certainly not have closed minds,' he added.
Dr Michael Dixon, medical director for the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health, which was set up by Prince Charles, said: 'We should not abandon patients we cannot help with conventional scientific medicine. 'If homeopathy is getting results for those patients, then of course we should continue to use it.'
Dr Sara Eames, president of the Faculty of Homeopathy, said there had been 100 controlled trials with far more positive outcomes than negative, and the report had disregarded many thousands of successfully treated patients. Cristal Sumner, chief executive of the British Homeopathy Association, said: 'It does seem an irresponsible way of decision-making for a committee of four voting members to draw conclusions that impact the health and welfare of thousands of patients from just four and half hours of verbal testimony and written submissions limited to 3,000 words.'
Robert Wilson, chairman of the firm Nelsons, which makes natural healthcare products, said: 'Homeopathy continues to be a popular and effective treatment, as illustrated by the number of repeat users who often seek homeopathic treatment at their own expense.' A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'The report and any recommendations will be given full consideration over the coming weeks.' 21.2.10
Even when the NHS is involved, these issues are still not as large as they're made out to be. Dr Sara Eames, president of the Faculty of Homeopathy and also a GP, remarks: "Placebo is an effect of every treatment, it's not the province of homeopathy." The epidemiologist Kerr White wrote once to the Lancet: "A paper in Medical Care reported a two-week survey by 19 GPs in a northern industrial town. They recorded the 'intent' of each prescription written:
In only 9.3% of the prescriptions for proprietary drugs was the intent specific for the condition for which it was prescribed.
Another 22.8% were of 'probable' benefit
27.2% were of 'possible benefit'
28.2% were 'hopeful'
8.9% were regarded as a 'placebo'
3.6% 'not stated'."
As you can see only 9.3% of prescriptions are written to specific intent, as most drugs don't actually work [Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)]. The committee of MP's was being misled by the pharmaceutical backed scientist who reported at the hearing. Homeopathy is based on dilution and the increase in the frequency/strength of the substance not the substance itself, they were simply looking in the wrong place.
Appliance of science proves complementary
For some people it is just a collection of old wives' tales. But for others it is the secret to a longer, healthier life. Complementary medicine has sharply divided opinion with question marks over the scientific truth behind claims. But now an encyclopedia has been published including much of the scientific research into this increasingly popular branch of medicine.
Professor Jayney Goddard, the President of the Complementary Medical Association, has edited Complementary and Alternative Health: The Scientific Verdict On What Really Works. It looks into 10,000 scientific trials. Most trials are double blind, which means neither doctors nor patients know who is taking the real substance and who is taking the placebo.
But Prof Goddard says it is still not enough. "The problem is that most research is carried out by pharmaceutical companies looking to patent a product," she said. "But you can't patent herbs or massage. So there needs to be much more research carried out. "However, a lot of research backs up many of the claims made about complementary treatments.
"For example, the latest research has shown that arnica helps in reducing swelling and bruising." She added: "I am not saying these are an alternative to modern chemical medicine, they are meant to be complementary.
"In France and Germany doctors deal with complementary medicine as much as they do with ordinary medicine. That is why St John's Wort is the most common anti-depressant prescribed in those countries. "We have a different attitude in the UK, although that is changing with a new generation of doctors."
The complementary market is growing with £191 million sales in the last year, 32% up on five years ago. The increasing popularity has been noted at the Union Street branch of Holland and Barrett. Store manager Stephanie Hundtofte said: "We find the most popular products are anti-arthritis ones, such as codliver oil and fish oils. "St John's Wort is very popular as an anti-depressant. It is not addictive, like other, conventional anti-depressants." 15.9. 07
Critics say 'the truth is, homoeopathy is a threat to the pharmaceutical industry and has been since 1854 and by exerting their influence, they [drug companies] have been able to remove funding for it or 'refuse enquiry into homœopathy' on the NHS to protect their long term growth as more and more patients want non-toxic medication'.
But in July 2010 Health Minister Andrew Lansley rejected calls from MPs on the Commons science committee to ban funding of the treatment which the BMA and others claim is unproven. He effectively gave the green light for spending on homeopathy to go up, because of his plans for patients to be able to ‘shop around' until they find a GP willing to prescribe complementary therapies. This means more patients will have access to such treatments. There will be no restrictions on the advertising of homeopathic treatments, he added.
A blow to the BMA and the pharmaceutical industry but a result for common sense and patient choice.