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The Lancet and the announced end of homeopathy: critical review of Shang et al’s (2005) study and subsequent related articles

Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: The Lancet published a meta-analysis comparing homeopathic and conventional clinical studies that according to its authors showed homeopathy to be a placebo effect. That article exerted strong impact on the overall media and the medical literature. The aim of the present study was to perform a critical appraisal of that meta-analysis, and a review of the subsequent related publications. The results show that the study by Shang et al exhibits severe selection bias, analysis bias, and possibly also post hoc analysis bias, which make its conclusions invalid. Political background factors might have exerted substantial influence on the results. The analyzed homeopathic clinical studies exhibited better methodological quality compared to the conventional ones, and most had positive therapeutic results. (Versao em Portugues0) Em agosto de 2005,  The Lancet  publicou uma metanalise comparativa de estudos clinicos homeopaticos e estudos clinicos convencionais que, de acordo com os autores, demonstrava que a homeopatia e placebo. Essa publicacao teve grande impacto na midia e na literatura medica. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi realizar uma critica dessa publicacao e uma revisao das publicacoes relacionadas subsequentes. Os resultados mostram que o trabalho  de Shang et al apresenta vies grave de selecao, vies de analise e, possivelmente, tambem vies de analise  post hoc  que invalidam suas conclusoes. O pano de fundo politico pode ter exercido influencia substancial nos resultados. Os ensaios clinicos homeopaticos analisados tiveram melhor qualidade metodologica que os convencionais, sendo que a maioria teve resultado terapeutico positivo.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2220533582
FWCI: 0.882
Cites: 32
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10