UK May Blacklist Homeopathy (bbc.co.uk)

New submitter Maritz writes: Vindication may be on the horizon for people who defer to reality in matters of health — UK ministers are considering whether homeopathy should be put on a blacklist of treatments GPs in England are banned from prescribing, the BBC has learned. The controversial practice is based on the principle that "like cures like," but critics say patients are being given useless sugar pills. The Faculty of Homeopathy said patients supported the therapy. A consultation is expected to take place in 2016. The total NHS bill for homeopathy, including homeopathic hospitals and GP prescriptions, is thought to be about £4m.

Comments

I Can't Figure Out

[MightyMartian]

I can't figure out how this brand of witchcraft was ever seen suitable to refer patients to.

Re:I Can't Figure Out

[Tx]

It's no different than prescribing a placebo, which does have a proven effect, although I expect it costs a lot more to see a homeopathy "specialist" than it does for a regular doctor to prescribe some do-nothing pills.

Re:I Can't Figure Out

[NotDrWho]

Next time he does it, show him a picture of Steve Jobs at the end.

Re:I Can't Figure Out

[Rei]

Here, can we compromise? The homeopaths get their £4m, only we'll first dilute it down 60X before giving it to them. That'll only increase it's buying power, right? ;)

The BBC aupports homeopathy

[DCFC]

Note how sympathetic the BBC is to homeopathy, giving a soft ride to someone who makes money from punting it.

Apparently that's "balance".

Next week the BBC will run an article on the different viewpoints on the square root of 16, giving equal time to those who say it is 8.

Snake oil

[sjbe]

The Faculty of Homeopathy said patients supported the therapy.

Who cares what the patients "support"? Patients for the most part demonstrably have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to medical treatments. We have highly trained medical professionals and we rely on treatments that can objectively be shown to work better than placebo for a reason.

Demonstrate to me that homeopathy is more effective than a placebo and I'm fine with it. Until that happens it is nothing but snake oil and anyone who supports it is harming people with fake treatments.

Not the solution to overprescribed antibiotics

[sjbe]

The most common placebo is antibiotics prescribed for viral infections. Homeopathy is certainly better than that, since at least it is harmless (since there is nothing in it).

Let's say you are a doctor and you prescribe antibiotics for what you believe is actually a viral disease. In many cases they don't actually know for 100% certain that it is viral and cannot because they did not do any test to confirm that thesis. In some percent of the cases the disease will turn out to be bacterial. In most cases the antibiotics will have little to no short term negative consequences for the patient. It's not a placebo because it isn't actually clear that it won't treat the disease and we know for a fact that it has an actual medicinal effect. We know for a fact that homeopathy does not and indeed cannot have a medicinal effect because there is no chemical reaction.

So let's say you prescribe homeopathy instead of antibiotics and the disease progresses and the patient gets very ill or dies. Now you are guilty of malpractice because you prescribed something you knew to be snake oil. You would have been better off either prescribing the antibiotics or even doing nothing. When you get dragged into court the first thing the lawyer is going to do is ask you why you didn't prescribe an actual medicine.

It seems silly to ban homeopathy while overprescription of antibiotics is still rampant.

Those are separate problems and homeopathy is NOT the solution to over prescription of antibiotics. Let's not conflate two issues and give homeopathy credibility when it deserves none.

Re:Placebos are by definition ineffectual

[Bill Hayden]

You are correct, but so is the person to which you are responding. Due to the placebo effect, a placebo *is* more effective than no treatment.