17 Comments

  1. Pharmacy is a science-based profession. Science doesn;t deal in “fairness”, but in evidence. OF all people, pharmacists should understand that a little bottle of water/alcohol or a sugar pill, with no identifiable “remedy” could possibly have any therapeutic effect beyond placebo.

    Recognising this, the only way to ethically sell these substances is to clearly inform customers that they are inert, but may work by the placebo effect.

    • The accurate comment is that pharmacy is a materialist reductionist science-based system.

      If one applies the true meaning of science then Homeopathy is indeed scientific and in fact truer to the core definition of science than is medicine or pharmacy today.

      The fact that materialist reductionist mechanist science cannot explain how Homeopathy might work is not the fault of Homeopathy, a brilliant, advanced and highly effective medical modality, but the fault of science at this point in its history. Science will advance and move beyond its limited materialist paradigm and then it will understand how Homeopathy works.

      In the meantime Homeopathy will continue to do what it has done for more than two centuries – heal and cure without doing harm. And I would add, for very little cost which is why it is taking off in both India and China and in other parts of the developing world.

      • “The fact that materialist reductionist mechanist science cannot explain how Homeopathy might work is not the fault of Homeopathy,”

        your absolutely right, and if homeopathy actually had the slightest shred of evidence that it worked and “science” couldnt explain it then you might have a point, that wouldnt be homeopathys fault.. but the sad truth is that homeopathy hasnt shown any efficacy at all, and “science” is just pointing out that you forgot the “formation and test of the theory” and “reproducability” parts of the scientific method when spouting these unsupported statements.

  2. I can’t work out whether this is supposed to be satire or not.

    If it is – well done. If it isn’t – then this has no place in a rational discussion about pharmacology and medicine. How about you try a new age website dedicated to crystal healing and other forms of witchcraft.

  3. I believe the formal ‘members’ of the Association number just _seven_, all but one of whom are Medicos

    i.e. those listed on the website:
    [http://www.scienceinmedicine.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119&Itemid=159]

    There is a rather large list of ‘friends’ published on the FoSiM website.
    Their standing in regards to the registered Association is unclear, presumably they are not on the formal Member Registry an Association is required to maintain.

    There’s a claim on the page that the association was registered on 13-Feb-2012 with NSW Fair Trading.
    No Association number is provided, nor is the entity listed in the Australian Business Register.

  4. Wow! A study that shows that homeopathy is 2.5 times more effective than a placebo! Please can you tell us which study it was so we can verify this information for ourselves?

    • If you are truly interested it is easy enough to do the research. Put your question into a search engine and type ncbi as well if you like and also do some searches on the effect of Homeopathic remedies on cells, including cancer cells; plants; animals and body tissue. Also do a search on Government records, the UK started keeping them in 1830 and the US and Australia a few decades later, on the highly effective performance of Homeopathy during epidemics. While you are at it, do a search on the efficacy of Homeopathy for more recent epidemics.

    • Try http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118440 “Individualized Homeopathic Treatment and Fluoxetine for Moderate to Severe Depression in Peri- and Postmenopausal Women (HOMDEP-MENOP Study): A Randomized, Double-Dummy, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial”

      Conclusion: Homeopathy and fluoxetine are effective and safe antidepressants for climacteric women. Homeopathy and fluoxetine were significantly different from placebo in response definition only. Homeopathy, but not fluoxetine, improves menopausal symptoms scored by Greene Climacteric Scale.

      Regards, Mark.

        • How much more do you need in terms of “robustness”?
          Did you even bother to read it?
          You and your affiliates continually claim there is no evidence for homeopathy, yet a simple Google search turns up more than enough to refute your non-evidenced based claim.
          Regards, Mark

          • Oh, I’ve read it. How long did the study last?

            But who are these ‘affiliates’ you’re on about? Please be specific.

            You’re free to challenge what others say, of course, but I don’t recall ever claiming what you seem to believe I have claimed, never mind continually. If someone else has said that, you’d perhaps be better asking them about it.

  5. Thank you Mark Coleman for writing a balanced view on homeopathy, with some extremely interesting history of its early use in Australia. There is no question that very active groups of worldwide skeptics are doing everything in their power to bring down homeopathy and we know that some of them are in the pay of the pharmaceutical industry, who do not, under any circumstances, want to see their profits shrink, having noted the alarming (for them) rise in popularity across the world of homeopathy.

    • Odd that my comment has not yet appeared – I’ll try again:

      Louise McLean said:

      “There is no question that very active groups of worldwide skeptics are doing everything in their power to bring down homeopathy and we know that some of them are in the pay of the pharmaceutical industry”

      Oooh! Please name names, Louise. Who is in the pay of the pharmaceutical industry? And provide evidence for your nasty allegations.

    • Much has been written about the revolving door between the FDA and pharmaceutical companies. It doesn’t give me much confidence in what the FDA has to say.

  6. The NHMRC concluded that “there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective”. Defending homeopathy only serves to denigrate the fine profession of pharmacy. PSA believes members must caution consumers against the use of homeopathic products and doesn’t support the sale of homeopathy products in pharmacy – we will be releasing a policy statement on this shortly. If some real evidence (as opposed to commentary, pseudoscience and shonky studies) were to materialise in the future, then our position may change – until then, we believe homeopathy has no place in ethical, evidence based pharmacy practice.

  7. Is this a spoof? The claim that homeopathy has an “unrivalled safety profile” is breathtaking. It is safe *only* if you don’t try to use it as a treatment for anything. When you rely on it and you are ill, you end up with this: http://is.gd/Dingle

    Homeopathy is inert. If the packaging and the rhetoric of its many shills were to restrict themselves to that, then there would be no problem. That’s not what happens, though, is it? They claim it is medicine, and in fact it’s confectionery.

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