How wonderful to have ‘Confusion in equal measure’,1 ‘Evidence-based medicine’2 and ‘How the public is being misled about complementary/alternative medicine’3 all published close together. A couple of years ago Ecas, a charity working with people with physical disabilities, did some work using aromatherapy on the long-stay wards of a hospital. I have no evidence to explain why it made people feel and sleep better; all I know is that the patients said they felt relaxed afterwards and they slept better. So it was not EBM.
However, we encouraged the NHS to use endowment funds, not public funds, to expand the service as it made patients feel better. The response from the medical profession was depressing and contradicts Edzard Ernst's assertion that there is no evidence that the establishment wishes to suppress CAM. An FRS, no less, wrote to a national paper thus ‘Of course some people will be cheered up by nice smells, but where do you stop? I expect some people would love Chanel Number 5 on the NHS too.’ And from a Consultant Clinical Scientist, ‘The truth is that virtually no scientists believe aromatherapy works, because the evidence does not exist’ and ‘I do not doubt for a moment that having one's feet massaged is a distraction from the effects of illness, in which case let us admit court jesters to the wards’. Hardly ringing endorsements from the professionals.
Footnotes
Conflicting interests None declared
References
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