The (Alternative) Medicalization of Life

Portions of this article were previously published as Schneiderman L.J. , “Alternative Medicine or Alternatives to Medicine? A Physician's Perspective,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 9 (2000): 83–97.

Ellis J. , “Inpatient General Medicine Is Evidence Based,” Lancet, 346 (1995): 407–10; Committee for Evaluating Medical Technologies in Clinical Use, Institute of Medicine, Assessing Medical Technologies (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 1985); Gill P. “Evidence Based General Practice: A Retrospective Study of Interventions in One Training Practice,” British Medical Journal, 312 (1996): 819–21; Michaud G. , “Are Therapeutic Decisions Supported by Evidence from Health Care Research?,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 158 (1998): 1665–58.

Illich I. , Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health (New York: Pantheon Books, 1976): At 39–124.

Id. at 123.

Chopra D. , Quantum Healing (New York: Bantam Books, 1989).

Id. at 240.

Northrup C. , Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).

Id. at 310.

Weil A. , Spontaneous Healing (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1995).

Id. at 235–37.

Id. at 236.

Id. at 235.

Hilts P.J. , “Severe Side Effects Are Seen in Experimental AIDS Drug,” New York Times, September 27, 1989, at A15.

Beyerstein B.L. Downie S. , “Naturopathy,” Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, 2, no. 1 (1998): 20–28; Ernst E. , “Are Highly Dilute Homoeopathic Remedies Placebos?,” Perfusion, 11 (1998): 291–92; Ernst E. Pittler M.H. , Letter, “Re-Analysis of Previous Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials of Homeopathy,” Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 53 (2000): 1188; Linde K. , “Impact of Study Quality on Outcome in Placebo-Controlled Trials of Homeopathy,” Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 52 (1999): 631–36; Vickers A.J. , “Can Acupuncture Have Specific Effects on Health? A Systematic Review of Acupuncture Antiemesis Trials,” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 89 (1996): 303–11; ter Riet G. Kleiznen J. Knipschild P. , “Acupuncture and Chronic Pain: A Criteria-Based Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 43 (1990): 1191–99; Cherkin D.C. , “Randomized Trial Comparing Traditional Chinese Medical Acupuncture, Therapeutic Massage, and Self-Care Education for Chronic Low Back Pain,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 161 (2001): 1081–88; Rosa L. Rosa E. Sarner L. , “A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch,” JAMA, 279 (1998): 1005–10.

Eisenberg D.M. , “Unconventional Medicine in the United States: Prevalence, Costs, and Patterns of Use,” N. Engl. J. Med., 328 (1993): 246–52; Eisenberg D.M. , “Trends in Alternative Medicine Use in the United States, 1990–1997: Results of a Follow-Up National Survey,” JAMA, 280 (1998): 1569–75.

Druss B.C. Rosenheck R.A. , “Association Between Use of Unconventional Therapies and Conventional Medical Services,” JAMA, 282 (1999): 651–56.

Brody J.E. , “Alternative Medicine Makes Inroads, But Watch Out For Curves,” New York Times, April 4, 1998, at BIO.

Root-Bernstein R. Root-Bernstein M. , Honey, Mud Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975): At 255.

S. Rep. No. 102–104, at 147 (1991).

Real C.D. , “Medicine or Medicine Show? Growth of Herbal Remedy Sales Raises Issues About Value,” New York Times, July 23, 1998, at C1, C4 (quoting David Kessler).

Lambert C. , “The New Ancient Trend in Medicine,” Harvard Magazine (March-April 2002): 44–49, 99–101, at 46.

Whorton J.C. , “The First Holistic Revolution: Alternative Medicine in the Nineteenth Century,” in Stalker D. Glymour C. , eds., Examining Holistic Medicine (New York: Prometheus Books, 1989): At 29.

Id. at 30.

Fisher R.A. , The Design of Experiments, 7th ed. (New York: Hafner, 1960).

Acupuncture, NIH Consensus Statement, 15, no. 5 (November 3–5, 1997): 1–34, available at <http://consensus.nih.gov/cons/107/107_statement.htm>.

Cervantes F.D. Schneiderman L.J. “Anticoagulants in Cerebrovascular Disease: A Critical Review of Studies,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 135 (1975): 875–77.

Dundee J.S. , “Effect of Stimulation of the P6 Antiemetic Point on Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting,” British Journal of Anaesthesia, 63 (1989): 612–18; Dundee J.W. McMillan C. , “Positive Evidence for P6 Acupuncture Antiemesis,” Postgraduate Medicine Journal, 67 (1991): 417–22.

See ter Riet Kleiznen Knipschild , supra note 20, at 1191.

Eisenberg D.M. , “Advising Patients Who Seek Alternative Medical Therapies,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 127 (1997): 61–69.

See Vickers , supra note 20.

Colditz G.A. Miller J.N. Mosteller F. , “How Study Design Affects Outcomes in Comparisons of Therapy,” Statistics in Medicine, 8 (1989): 441–54; Schulz K.F. , “Empirical Evidence of Bias: Dimensions of Methodological Quality Associated With Estimates of Treatment Effects in Controlled Trials,” JAMA, 273 (1995): 408–12; Khan K. Daya S. Jadad A. , “The Importance of Quality of Primary Studies in Producing Unbiased Systematic Reviews,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 156 (1996): 661–66.

Gifford R.H. Feinstein A.R. , “A Critique of Methodology in Studies of Anticoagulant Therapy for Acute Myocardial Infarction,” N. Engl. J. Med., 280 (1969): 351–57.

Eddy D.M. , “Investigational Treatments: How Strict Should We Be?,” JAMA, 278 (1997): 179–85, at 182.

Stapleton S. , “Medicine's Chasm,” American Medical News, June 3, 2002, at 29.

See id. (quoting Robert S. Baratz).

Crelin E.S. , “Chiropractic,” in Stalker D. Glymour C. , eds., Examining Holistic Medicine (New York: Prometheus Books, 1989).

Bigos S.J. , Acute Low Back Pain Problems in Adults: Clinical Practice Guideline No. 14, AHCPR Pub. No. 95–0642 (Rockville, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1992); Shekelle PG. , “Spinal Manipulation for Low-Back Pain,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 117 (1992): 590–98; Coulter I. , “Congruence Between Decisions to Initiate Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation for Low Back Pain and Appropriateness Criteria in North America,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 129 (1998): 9–17.

Cherkin D.C. , “A Comparison of Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Manipulation, and Provision of an Educational Booklet for the Treatment of Patients with Low Back Pain,” N. Engl. J. Med., 339 (1998): 1021–29.

Sampson W. , “On the National Institute of Drug Abuse Consensus Conference on Acupuncture,” Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, 2 (1998): 54–55, at 55.

Helms J.M. , “An Overview of Medical Acupuncture,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 4 (1998): 35–45; Sherman K.J. Cherkin D.C. Hogeboom C.J. , “The Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients with Chronic Low-Back Pain by Traditional Chinese Medical Acupuncturists,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 7 (2001): 641–50.

Dimond E.G. , “Acupuncture Anesthesia: Western Medicine and Chinese Traditional Medicine,” JAMA, 218 (1971): 1558–63, at 1559.

Cherkin , supra note 20.

Gravitz M.A. , “Early Uses of Hypnosis as Surgical Anesthesia,” American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 30 (1988): 201–08.

Kaptchuk T.J. , “The Placebo Effect in Alternative Medicine: Can the Performance of a Healing Ritual Have Clinical Significance?,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 136 (2002): 817–25.

Kaptchuk T.J. , “Acupuncture: Theory, Efficacy, and Practice,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 136 (2002): 374–83, at 379.

Blakeslee S. , “Placebos Prove So Powerful Even Experts Are Surprised,” New York Times, October 13, 1998, at F1, F4; Brown WA , “The Placebo Effect,” Scientific American (January 1998): 90–95; de Saintonge M.C. Herxheimer A. , “Harnessing Placebo Effects in Health Care,” Lancet, 344 (1994): 995–98.

Walsh T.B. , “Placebo Response in Studies of Major Depression: Variable, Substantial, and Growing,” JAMA, 287 (2002): 1840–47.

Schneiderman L.J. , “Commentary: Bringing Clarity to the Futility Debate: Are the Cases Wrong?,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 7 (1998): 273–78.

Avina R.L. Schneiderman L.J. , “Why Patients Choose Homeopathy,” Western Journal of Medicine, 128 (1978): 366–69.