Is Evidence-Based Medicine Only an Illusion?

Is Evidence-Based Medicine Only an Illusion?
By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: February 23, 2013

In a system where half of all clinical trials never see the light of publication, doctors are merely "imagining that we're practicing evidence-based medicine," says Ben Goldacre, MBBS, a British physician and science journalist.

Goldacre is among the most vocal critics of drug makers who refuse to hand over complete clinical trial data, making it impossible for doctors and patients to get the full picture on most of the medicines widely used today. He decries the industry's behavior in his new book, Bad Pharma, which in itself is a review of the evidence on evidence review and the stumbling blocks incurred by researchers who try to dig deeper.

He'd like to see all of the clinical study reports ever completed brought out of "dry storage archive...and everywhere else that people stack their old, crinkly, yellow paperwork" and made publicly available -- ideally on his new website, AllTrials.net, which recently signed on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to release every study the company has ever done.

During a promotional tour in the U.S., Goldacre answered questions from MedPage Today, in an abbreviated form on camera and in this edited, in-depth Q&A:
Continue:[www.medpagetoday.com]

You may be interested in Bill Ware's excellent article on the subject Evidence-based Medicine: Fact or Fantasy? pulished in the September issue of International Health News [www.yourhealthbase.com]

Hans

I did read that good report.... I was most pleased that this latest report was published in Med Page Today ... the more it gets out there 'in your face' for mainstream reading, the better.

J

Jackie & Hans - You might be interested in Dr Fuhrman's MD encounter with the drug industry. He signed on to write a report on diabetes which he claimed to cure in two weeks. The drug industry wanted him to "water down" the results and show that the patients were "improving still requiring their product" rather than cured. Dr Fuhrman refused & returned the $700 he received for writing for report. You can read more details in his book "End Of Diabetes" 2013. Physicians like MDs Drs. Whitaker, Sinatra & Fuhrman are abandoning so-called prescription drug "solutions".

Thanks James.... I'm always interested in following those doctors with an open mind and blazing new trails out of the Big Pharma shadows of darkness. .

When I was an undergrad some (xxxxxx years ago) I was wondering around the school library. I found a book and read in it that there actually is a ration attached to the placebo effect. I wish I could find that book again but time goes on. I have never forgot that ration: 1/3 of people will feel the full effect of what the placebo is supposed to do; 1/3 will get some effect; and 1/3 will get nothing. If you will look at the PDR and check the effects of any drug you will find that pretty much all of the drugs fall into that ratio. If you want to find out about how a drug is actually working look at the criticisms from the people who are taking it, not what the drug companies who have set up the "clinical trials" have claimed. Here you'll find the actual outcomes of the use of that particular drug. It's a well-known fact that drug companies (I think the scientific term is) "fudge" their results often only to get the drug on the market. And it's a pretty much given that what the drug companies say the FDA approves. Then, after being on the market for a while how often do the law suits start against drug companies for a particular drug? The argument that the benefits outweigh the risks just don't hold water. If you look at the side effects, secondary and often tertiary side effects generally outweigh the benefits. When there are so many side effects a drug should never have been approved. But the drug companies have a war chest to take care of the law suits. So, it doesn't interfere with their profits. Sad.