Bloggers Behind Simon Singh – Where The News Is At

My fellow Translucent Science bloggers, who have long been keeping a keen eye on the Dore developments whilst I’ve been busy travelling for research purposes, have all the buzz for you on what’s going on with the British Chiropractic Association vs Simon Singh.

But first – there’s a brand new review out in the Wall Street Journal on Trick or Treatment today, all about the history and trends regarding alternative medicines, by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst:

…Based at the University of Exeter in England, [Dr. Ernst] leads a research group that has spent 15 years studying alternative remedies, trying to separate snake oil from science. Mr. Singh, his co-author, is a science journalist whose books include “Fermat’s Enigma” and “Big Bang.” Together they conclude, after cataloging the evidence, that most of the popular forms of alternative medicine are “a throwback to the dark ages.” Too many alternative practitioners, they say, are “uninterested in determining the safety and efficacy of their interventions.”

…”Trick or Treatment” includes a brisk history of our evidence-based approach to medicine, tracing the development of the modern clinical trial from its earliest days, when scurvy was shown to be caused by insufficient vitamin C and bleeding was debunked as a medical cure. Unfortunately, the evidence of clinical trials is largely ignored when it comes to alternative medicine.

So, why is it so? The answer is thus:

“Alternative medicine is not so much about the treatments we discuss in this book,” the authors write, “but about the therapeutic relationship. Many alternative practitioners develop an excellent relationship with their patients that helps to maximize the placebo effect of an otherwise useless treatment.” To bring all treatments in line with rigorous science, an “excellent relationship” between doctor and patient is a good place to start.

As for all the other fuss that’s started – Singh is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association after writing an article in the Guardian, which you can find in full here thanks to Gimpy’s Blog. As you can see, “The libellous Simon Singh article on chiropractors” includes evidence and links for the elements that Singh refers to, kindly supplied by Gimpy:

Singh: You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact they still possess some quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything. And even the more moderate chiropractors have ideas above their station. The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.

[These claims are found in the following documents from the BCA website, Happy Families and A Real Pain in the Back.]

I can confidently label these treatments as bogus because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

[All details on Ernst's research on chiropractic can be found on PubMed here. Simon Singh has indeed co-authored a book with Professor Ernst.]

Holford Watch has more on the issue as it unfolds and is regularly updating on their blog here:

At the time of writing the British Chiropractic Association’s website does not carry any stories about this legal action. However, this does answer the questions raised on UK Sceptics since July 3rd about where Simon Singh’s article had disappeared to from the Guardian.

But in terms of piquant-ness, I think I like Ben Goldacre’s miniblog summation of it all the best: ‘Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, crass, revealing, and pathetic.’

Tagged as: alternative medicine, Ben Goldacre, bloggers, blogs, British Chiropractic Association, chiropractors, complementary and alternative medicine, DORE, Ernst, Gimpy's Blog, Guardian, Holford Watch, review, Simon Singh, Translucent Science, Trick or Treatment, UK, UK Skeptics, wall street journal