Pseudomedicine
Pseudomedicine is medicine which claims to be effective for diagnosing or treating specific medical conditions, but which has been disproven or which is unproven and the mainstream scientific opinion is that it will not be proven to be effective. It is distinct from experimental medicine, which is medicine that has not yet proven but which is undergoing the process of either being proven and becoming accepted, or being disproven and being discarded.
Contents
Definition
PSIRAM has defined pseudomedicine as referring to "treatments that claim to be working concepts of medicine that have no objectively verifiable benefit or are incompatible with the current state of knowledge in the field of science-based medicine."[1]
Historically, the term was used in the early 20th century by the American Medical Association when, as part of the effort to gain establishment status, it combated what it called quackery and pseudomedicine, thus differentiating itself as a professional organization of experts distinct from charlatan practitioners.[2]
Sociology
The National Council Against Health Fraud has said that the existence of pseudomedicine results from the effect of market forces: on the one hand a desire for quick fixes rooted in alienation from mainstream medicine, and on the other hand businessmen only too willing to meet that demand.[3]
List of fields characterized as pseudomedicine
- Chiropractic – a system of medicine based on beliefs of Daniel David Palmer (1845–1913), who proposed that the spine and musculature underpin all aspects of human health.[4]
- Osteopathic manipulative therapy – a repertoire of technique based on tenets laid down by Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917), who proposed that an interlinked tissue layer in the human body could be manipulated to treat systemic human disease.[4]
- Pagtatawas – a ritual in pseudo-medicine in Filipino Psychology (but considered superstition in Western psychology) where an affliction or psychological disorder is diagnosed by interpreting the form produced in water by heated alum or molten wax droppings from a lighted candle.
- Phrenology – a set of practices primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.[4][5]
- Rife machine treatment – treatment using an electronic device purported to cure cancer by transmitting radio waves.[6][7]
- Homeopathy - a system of medicine started by Samuel Hahnemann based on two major principles (like cures like, diluting a drug increases its potency) that contradicts fundamental principles of pathology, physics and chemistry.
- Eugenics – including forced sterilization[8]
- Refusing to treat medical conditions in people with disabilities for social or political reasons[8]
See also
References
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- ↑ Fodor, Jerry A. (1983). Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-56025-9 p.14, 23, 131
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Rife devices." NCAHF Newsletter Mar.-Apr. 1992: 3. Academic OneFile. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
