Snake Oil Science The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Name: Snake Oil Science The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Price: 6.12 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195383423

ISBN-10: 0195383427

ISBN-13: 9780195383423

Edition: 2009

Authors: R. Barker Bausell

List price: $24.50

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Description:

Hailed in the New York Times as "entertaining and immensely educational," Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book's ultimate goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make medical therapies appear to be effective--not just to consumers, but to therapists and poorly trained scientists as well. Bausell explores this remarkable phenomenon and explains why research on any therapy that does not factor in the placebo effect (and other placebo-like effects) will inevitably produce false results. Moreover, as the author shows in an impressive survey of…

Book details

List price: $24.50
Copyright year: 2009
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 8/2/2009
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 320
Size: 5.10" wide x 7.80" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 0.880
Language: English



Introduction



The Rise of Complementary and Alternative Therapies



A Brief History of Placebos



Natural Impediments to Making Valid Inferences



Impediments That Prevent our Physicians and Therapists From Making Valid Inferences



Impediments that Prevent Poorly Trained Scientists from Making Valid Inferences



Why Randomized Placebo Control Groups Are Necessary in CAM Research



Judging the Credibility and Plausibility of Scientific Evidence



Some Personal Research



How We Know that the Placebo Effect Exists



A Bio-Chemical Explanation for the Placebo Effect



Do CAM Therapies Work Or Are They Placebo Effects? Evidence From High Quality Randomized Placebo Controlled Trials



Do CAM Therapies Work Or Are They Placebo Effects? Evidence From High Quality Systematic Reviews



How CAM Therapies Are Hypothesized to Work



Tying Up a Few Loose Ends


Notes


Index