Fonte: European Journal of Internal Medicine | leggi nel link originario (>>)
Il titolo ‘Accanimento terapeutico’ non è il titolo reale scritto dall’autore della lettera all’editore. E’ stato scelto per testimoniare l’accanimento filosofico e pseudoscientifico – direi speculativo – nel sostenere l’insostenibile anche dopo che l’articolo come quello dell’ Australian National Health and Medical Research Council è stato dichiarato poco attendibile.
La lettera all’editore è firmata Silvo Garattini, detrattore storico dell’omeopatia. Noi rabbrividiamo.
Letter to the Editor: More on homeopathy
Finally a government body has had the courage to express a clear opinion on homeopathy. The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council has declared that homeopathy is not an effective treatment for any health condition [1]. This is the result of analysis of more than 1800 articles concerning clinical trials, systematic reviews, published guidelines and data made available by homeopathy organiza- tions. The analysis covered 225 papers where homeopathic treatments were compared to controls. As expected, there was no evidence of ther- apeutic activity. Trials reporting positive data were of very poor quality, with methodological bias, and too few participants. Warwick Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of the Council, recommended that “Australians […] should not rely on homeopathy as a substitute for proven, effective treatments” [2].
It will be interesting to see whether or not European governments react to the Australian report considering that European legislation – with some limitations and ambiguity – considers homeopathic products part of the drug armamentarium [3]. It may be time to inform Europeans convincingly about the lack of evidence for homeopathy. One may hope
to see a position paper from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or from the European Commission, thus avoiding approval of homeopathic products by a national agency, as happened recently in the U.K. despite the negative position held by the U.K. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee [4]. Ministers of Health should not support a yearly “homeopathic day” – celebrated in Italy – so as to avoid legitimat- ing a useless practice.
References
0953-6205/© 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
[1]
[2] [3] [4]
National Health and Medical Research Council. NHMRC information paper and statement: administrative report; Mar 2015 (www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-topics/complementary- medicine/homeopathy-review).
BMJ 2015;350:h1478.
Eur J Intern Med 2014;25:e68.
Kmietowicz Z. NHS should stop funding homeopathy, MPs say. BMJ 2010;340:c1091.
Silvio Garattini
IRCCS Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Milan, Italy
olikos.org 