Quackademic medicine

Quackademic medicine is a pejorative term used by some in the science based medicine community for “integrative medicine” (using alternative medicine alongside science based medicine), when considered to be the infiltration of quackery into academic medicine, the attempt to lie to patients in order to achieve a larger placebo effect, or an attempt at “diverting research time, money, and other resources from more fruitful lines of investigation in order to pursue a theory that has no basis in biology”.[1][2] An example David Gorski's critique of Brian M. Berman, M.D., founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine and the holder of multiple NCCAM center grants, and other institutions, for having written "There was nevertheless evidence that both real acupuncture and sham acupuncture were more effective than no treatment and that acupuncture can be a useful supplement to other forms of conventional therapy for low back pain", and of editors and peer reviewers at the New England Journal of Medicine for having allowed it to be published, since it effectively recommended deliberately misleading patients in order to achieve a known placebo effect.[3][1]

  1. ^ a b >Credulity about acupuncture infiltrates the New England Journal of Medicine, Science Based Medicine, David Gorski, [1]
  2. ^ Acupuncture Pseudoscience in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science Based Medicine, Steven Novella [2]
  3. ^ Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain, New England Journal of Medicine, 2010; 363:454-461, Brian M. Berman, M.D., Helene M. Langevin, M.D., Claudia M. Witt, M.D., M.B.A., and Ronald Dubner, D.D.S., Ph.D.