There Is No Such Thing as Alternative Medicine

Abstract

from the vital need to critique cases of overstatement before such empirical tests of efficacy are undertaken so as to avoid harm at the three levels we described: firstly, so that informed consent can be respected, false hope is not generated, and rigorous research does not get crowded out because patients seek alternative therapies instead of participating in clinical trials testing them (Mastroleo and Holzer 2020; Daly et al. 2020). In short, we would argue that the “alternative” nature of such therapies should not be used to allow CAM providers to make often wild unsupported claims about their products based on weak evidence with significant consequences. We therefore favor the use of the term “non-validated practice of neurotherapies” as a unifying term.