Snake Oil Science: The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Hailed in the New York Times as "entertaining and immensely educational," Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book's ultimate goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make medical therapies appear to be effective--not just to consumers, but to therapists and poorly trained scientists as well. Bausell explores this remarkable phenomenon and explains why research on any therapy that does not factor in the placebo effect (and other placebo-like effects) will inevitably produce false results. Moreover, as the author shows in an impressive survey of research from high-quality scientific journals, studies employing credible placebo controls do not indicate positive effects for alternative therapies beyond those attributable to random chance. Readers will come away from this book with a healthy skepticism of claims about the latest "miracle
cure," be it St. John's Wort for depression or acupuncture for chronic pain.


Author: R. Barker Bausell Ph. D.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 07/31/2009
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780195383423

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 11/01/2009 pg. 20

About the Author

R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore, was Research Director of a National Institutes of Health-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Specialized Research Center.

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