What to avoid

[acidcasual]

I've had time today to have a good look around the site. I've found a lot of good information and some really useful links but there is also quite a lot of woo. There are a lot of quacks, charlatans, con-merchants, and snake oil sales people out there trading on people's fears and insecurities. They rely on our lack of knowledge and sometimes desperate circumstances to peddle their wares. A lot of this comes from the Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine community or SCAM. They dress up their marketing blurb with scientific sounding but meaningless jargon, bogus studies and testimonials whilst decrying real science and proven therapies. What follows is my list of nonsense therapies, pseudoscience and snake oil that it is best to avoid. Links are provided for further reading.

Subliminal tapes, http://www.csicop.org/si/9204/sublim...erception.html

E.M.D.R. (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, http://skepdic.com/emdr.html

Acupuncture, http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/08-10-08.html#feature

Therapeutic Touch, throughly debunked by a 10 year old girl http://www.quackwatch.org/01Quackery...Topics/tt.html

Variants of Therapeutic Touch and other energy nonsense;
Reiki
Thought Field Therapy and Emotional Freedom Techniques http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-07/tho...d-therapy.html
Crystal Healing
Indian Head Massage
Reflexology

Aromatherapy http://www.csicop.org/si/9605/aroma.html

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) http://skepdic.com/neurolin.html
Hypnotherapy http://skepdic.com/hypnosis.html

Homeopathy http://www.quackwatch.org/01Quackery...ics/homeo.html

[simon1989]

what what what, I dont understand how some of these are scams? It's been proven that the EFT tapping point's have a higher energy, then the rest of the body, Iv had reasonable success with it.

Most of the information about these are available free on the web anyway... And yeh there probably is some numnut somewhere collecting free info and passing it on for dosh

[Pal]

I wouldn't be so quick to say they're all bollocks, some NLP has worked well for me and some people have made pretty good use of hypnotherapy.

It's like anything, you've got to try it and see what works for you.

5 minutes of net research shows the other side of the story:

Subliminal messages http://www.guide-to-self-help-techni...erception.html

E.M.D.R. http://www.emdr-europe.org/research.htm

Aromatherapy http://www.internethealthlibrary.com...y-Research.htm

Acupuncture http://www.internethealthlibrary.com...e-Research.htm

Therapeutic Touch http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15222602

NLP - couldnt find anything in 5 mins

Hypnotherapy http://www.internethealthlibrary.com...y-Research.htm

Homeopathy http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/

I should probably admit to being a complementary therapy student at this point! I don't have personal experience of all the above therapies, and wouldn't necesarrily defend all of them, but there is an increasing amount of research that shows the effectiveness of many such therapies. And also research that shows that some therapies are ineffective for certain conditions or at all. Complementary therapies are a developing area of research and much more needs to be done in this area.

There are a lot of quacks, charlatans, con-merchants, and snake oil sales people out there trading on people's fears and insecurities. They rely on our lack of knowledge and sometimes desperate circumstances to peddle their wares.

I've come across some of these working for the NHS

A lot of this comes from the Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine community or SCAM.

Unfortunately, true. I used to work for Holland & Barrett and many of their products are marked up hugely, and staff are encouraged to sell customers any product that is remotely connected to a customers condition. Also I have personally met practioners at trade events who got very shirty with me when I asked the most basic questions about how their new therapy was supposed to work.

However there are also many, many responsible practioners who work on evidence based practise, don't make extravagant unproven claims for their treatments, and provide a great deal of benefit to peoples health. My advice to anyone thinking about trying a complimentary therapy would be to do your own research, and avoid anyone giving you the 'hard sell' or making extravagant claims.

[Pal]

Originally Posted by pyramidic

However there are also many, many responsible practioners who work on evidence based practise, don't make extravagant unproven claims for their treatments, and provide a great deal of benefit to peoples health. My advice to anyone thinking about trying a complimentary therapy would be to do your own research, and avoid anyone giving you the 'hard sell' or making extravagant claims.

That's half the problem isn't it, the extravagant claims, it puts people off trying it and causes bad opinion due to not being able to deliver.

That's half the problem isn't it, the extravagant claims, it puts people off trying it and causes bad opinion due to not being able to deliver.

Yeah definately, there is some regulation for some therapies these days but not nearly enough IMO.

[acidcasual]

Originally Posted by pyramidic

I should probably admit to being a complementary therapy student at this point! I don't have personal experience of all the above therapies, and wouldn't necesarrily defend all of them, but there is an increasing amount of research that shows the effectiveness of many such therapies. And also research that shows that some therapies are ineffective for certain conditions or at all. Complementary therapies are a developing area of research and much more needs to be done in this area.

Good news! The UK's complementary therapy watchdog has appointed a new chairman. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/h...-200901201522/

Originally Posted by acidcasual

Good news! The UK's complementary therapy watchdog has appointed a new chairman. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/h...-200901201522/

No way, thats my old tutor! He's had his hair cut since I last saw him though

[acidcasual]

Originally Posted by pyramidic

No way, thats my old tutor! He's had his hair cut since I last saw him though

Nice response kudos.

Try that again and i'll put the evil eye on you!

[anotherben]

I was advised to take Gelsemium during my driving test as this would help calm me so i was told, it didn't, at all, infact i don't think it did anything.
Homeopathy i've found to be useless, i don't really see how it can work especially given homeopathic remedies are usually diluted to the point where there are no molecules from the original solution left in the final remedy. I think its no more than a placebo.

[acidcasual]

Here's a great little film on critical thinking by Brian Dunning of Skeptoid fame. http://herebedragonsmovie.com/

[kf231]

I've found hypnotherapy extremely useful for SA as well as acupuncture for depression. I think we do have to be extremely careful as there are no doubt endless numbers of scams out there, but that doesn't mean that all of these things should be dismissed as rubbish.

And while I do appreciate the danger of the placebo effect (especially for products that are sold at ridiculous prices to people who are in complete despair), as far as I'm concerned, if it makes me feel better then it makes me feel better, I don't care how it does it.

I don't believe in these things and I don't not believe in them. I'll happily try any of them as long as they're not over-priced, and I'll always go in with an open mind. To be honest when you've reached rock bottom with SA you'll try just about anything.

[kf231]

I'd also like to point out that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are two very different things.

The quote from the link for 'hypnotherapy' is actually regarding hypnosis...
"Hypnosis and the placebo effect are so heavily reliant upon the effects of suggestion and belief that it would be hard to imagine how a credible placebo control could ever be devised for a hypnotism study."

Yes, hypnosis is very reliant upon suggestion, as are most Freudian psychoanalysis techniques. But hypnotherapy is not. It simply involves imagery which you go through whilst fully conscious and in complete control of your actions.

[acidcasual]

I have changed my stance on these therapies. It has been demonstrated to me, this past week, that some of these therapies do work. Just be careful when picking a therapist because there are a lot of charlatans out there.

[ernie]

I have changed my stance on these therapies. It has been demonstrated to me, this past week, that some of these therapies do work. Just be careful when picking a therapist because there are a lot of charlatans out there.

Intruiging. You wouldn't care to elaborate on that would you? Or would you not want to say unless it could be scientifically proven?

Many practitioner's would tell you that research conducted into their therpaies are inherently flawed - homeopathy, for instance - many of the studies are with off-the-shelf homeopathy with has nothing to do with classical homeopathy, where the remedy is selected to treat the whole person, not just 1 complaint.
I'm still a sceptic of many things, and yeah - you've got to be really careful who you see - I've always made a point of steering clear of the jack of all trades types. But sometimes you can try something despite the "warnings" and find that it works and then that's all there is to it.