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Australia Declares Homeopathy "Useless"

G6000

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http://www.popsci.com/article/science/australia-declares-homeopathy-useless

Australia's main medical group, the National Health and Medical Research Council, has concluded that homeopathy is "useless."

As Melbourne's Herald Sun reported:
The judgement is likely to influence a crucial government review which is deciding whether the 30 per cent tax rebate for private health insurance coverage ofcomplementary therapies should continue. Australians spend almost $4 billion a year on complementary therapies like vitamins and herbs and almost $10 million on homeopathic remedies.
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A sad day for rubes.

Here is a link to a page containing the 300 page government report: http://consultations.nhmrc.gov.au/public_consultations/homeopathy_health

G'day!
 
To be fair, it's not entirely useless. It's great for bilking people out of their hard earned money via the placebo effect (and perhaps some wishful thinking). That's certainly been of use to some people with, shall we say, questionable moral fiber.
 
Don't forget that it's also great for torturing animals and babies with untreated conditions while allowing their owners/parents to gain an unwarranted glow of satisfaction from projecting their own expectations on to the nonverbal targets of their "care".
 
badnewsBH said:
To be fair, it's not entirely useless. It's great for bilking people out of their hard earned money via the placebo effect (and perhaps some wishful thinking). That's certainly been of use to some people with, shall we say, questionable moral fiber.
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homeopathic moral fiber
 
I think that if you're going to go the placebo route, you might as well go all the way with it.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/fda-approves-sale-of-prescription-placebo,1606/

I particularly like this little gem of contrast they included at the beginning and end of the article:

"We couldn't be more thrilled to finally get this wonder drug out of the labs and into consumers' medicine cabinets," said Tami Erickson, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca. "Studies show placebo to be effective in the treatment of many ailments and disorders, ranging from lower-back pain to erectile dysfunction to nausea."
...
"Yes, placebo has benefits, but studies link it to a hundred different side effects, from lower-back pain to erectile dysfunction to nausea," drug researcher Patrick Wheeler said.​

ETA: and of course, the last line is perhaps the best:

"It's unfair to the American people to withhold a drug so many of them desperately think they need."
 
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Homeopathy is a fairly good cure for a wealthy hypochondriac. Other than that, sure. Useless.
 
Very little is completely useless.
If nowt else, it's a lesson .
But I suspect many GPs, finding themselves dealing with (often elderly) patients, suffering from essentially untreatable , age related conditions, often complicated by simple loneliness and depression, are apt to prescribe homoeopathic and other "complementary" treatments to basically get these folk out of the treatment room with a prescription that keeps them happy, that being the best the doctor can actually do .
 
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