Randomized Clinical Trials & Placebo: Can You Trust the Drugs are Working & Safe? (Pharmacology -- Research, Safety Testing & Regulation Series) (Health and Human Development)

Product Description Randomised clinical trials (RCT) have been accepted as the golden standard of testing, which in turn makes chemical medicine "evidence based". RCT is based on four assumptions: the placebo effect is represented by a placebo pill; it is possible to make a double-blind test with biologically active drugs; beneficial and harmful effects of drugs are fairly measured in RCTs and an appropriate time frame for the test is used. RCTs can turn drugs that are only toxic and not beneficial at all into products sold as useful chemical medicine. Many pharmaceutical drugs on the market today are tested only with this flawed RTC-procedure and we recommend that these drugs be tested again using a rational method. This book presents new research which examines the helpfulness of drugs and the need for clinical trials in order to test whether it is safe to use these drugs or if a return to holistic medicine is necessary. About the Author Joav Merrick, MD, MMedSci, DMSc, (Medical Director, Health Services, Division for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, Jerusalem, Israel; Division of Adolescent Medicine, KY Childrens Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Lexington, Kentucky, US; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Jerusalem, Israel; Division of Pediatrics, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Centers, Mt Scopus Campus, Jerusalem, Israel; School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, US)