Recently a post of mine describing attacks on homeopathy as “batty and arrogant” that I wrote last year was retweeted. This meant that again homeopathy’s hard-core detractors rushed out with lectures about the scientific method and the need for randomised trials (obvious) but yet again no attempt to actually deal with the issues I raised […]
Silver Bullet Awards: the winners
March 31, 2013 by 7 Comments
OK the judges have finished their deliberations, all the votes are in and it is time to roll out the blushing red carpet of shame and announce the worthy winner of this year’s Silver Bullet for the most egregious medical quackery. Many thanks to all of you who took time out from your busy on-line […]
The evidence–free drug that costs the NHS 70 million a year
March 4, 2013 by 9 Comments
Just as Catholic cardinals condemn paedophilia, so mainstream medicine formally rejects treatments not supported by evidence in the form of clinical trials. But in reality interfering with novices or failing to come up with the evidence, providing of course a drug is involved, doesn’t necessarily mean banishment. Both dodgy priests and drugs can remain on […]
Prescribing drugs with no evidence just got a bit easier
February 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Recently I had a revealing “discussion” with a very senior and respected academic about whether illegal marketing by drug companies was putting patients at risk. By the end he was claiming my view – it clearly is dangerous and even heavy fines were not enough – merely enriches lawyers and pushes up prices paid by […]
Silver Bullet Award for dangerous drug promotion
January 17, 2013 by 21 Comments
When I saw recently that Simon Singh, energetic “quack buster “ and scourge of homoeopaths, chiropractors and their ilk, had established an award called the Golden Duck to be presented to the person who had “supported or practised pseudoscience in the most dangerous or irresponsible manner” , my first thought was: How unfair! What […]
The link between hurricane Sandy and junk food
November 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
The bitterness of US the election and the damage wrought by hurricane Sandy don’t have an obvious connection. But in the Guardian last week author and activist Naomi Klein argued that one thread linking them was the ability of large corporations to avoid paying for their mistakes. It’s an analysis that also provides a useful […]
Ben Goldacre’s new book. Too late, too little
September 23, 2012 by 17 Comments
Drug companies exaggerate their successes, hide their failures and generally fail to abide by the rules of evidence based medicine. This ongoing fraud is the subject of the latest book from Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre, better known as merciless scourge of “woo” merchants cynically flogging worthless complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments. An extract from […]
You can’t even trust Lucozade and that matters
July 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Did you register the huge 3 billion dollar fine recently slapped on GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drug company and manufacturer of Lucozade ? And if so, did you briefly wonder whether it was enough? After all, hiding data that your product can kill people and making unsupported claims about safety would normally be enough to put […]
Why I feel sorry for Bob Diamond
July 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Bob Diamond’s air of injured innocence when his bank was found with, not just both hands in the till but feet, nose and a giant hoover as well, has been greeted with a mix of incredulity and fury. But it seems to me that he certainly has the right to be feeling “it’s not fair”. […]
Prescribing off label – common and unscientific
April 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Two recent reports have just peered into a murky corner of evidence based medicine and found illegal doings and a distinct lack of evidence Over 11% of the prescriptions handed out in Canada were done off-label, according to a study published yesterday What this means that there weren’t clinical trials backing up their use for that condition. […]
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