Here is a link to the reputable Cochrane Library for you decide whether you should have or recommend the influenza vaccination
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004876.pub3/abstract
The Cochrane Library has plenty of information on the influenza vaccination. Have a look around.
This is a wonderful rapid response from a doctor about why health professionals do things. There is a link at the end of the quote which gets you to the book Testing Treatments which is probably easily the best book around on Evidence Based Medicine.
WE DO THINGS BECAUSE . . .
‘We [doctors] do things, because other doctors do so and we don’t want to be different, so we do so; or because we were taught so [by teachers, fellows and residents (junior doctors)]; or because we were forced [by teachers, administrators, regulators, guideline developers] to do so, and think that we must do so; or because patient wants so, and we think we should do so; or because of more incentives [unnecessary tests (especially by procedure oriented physicians) and visits], we think we should do so; or because of the fear [by the legal system, audits] we feel that we should do so [so-called ‘covering oneself’]; or because we need some time [to let nature take its course], so we do so; finally and more commonly, that we have to do something [justification] and we fail to apply common sense, so we do so.’
Parmar MS. We do things because (rapid response). BMJ. Posted 1 March 2004 at www.bmj.com.
http://www.testingtreatments.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/TT-interactive.pdf
Review of clinical trials supports homeopathy in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue
A well conducted systematic review from colleagues in the USA has scrutinised randomised-placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) of homeopathy for psychiatric conditions. Identified studies were grouped into anxiety or stress, sleep or circadian rhythm complaints, premenstrual problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, mild traumatic brain injury, and functional somatic syndromes. Efficacy was found for the functional somatic syndromes group (fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome), but not for anxiety and stress. For other disorders homeopathy produced mixed effects.
Reference:
Davidson, JR, Crawford, C, Ives, JA, Jones, WB. Homeopathic treatments in psychiatry: a systematic review of randomized placebo-controlled studies. J Clin Psychiatry 2011; 72:795-805.
Source: Simile, October 2011
Disinformation about homeopathy is as old as homeopathy itself. There is nothing new here, but it is always instructive to understand the art of creating ’strawmen’. If you can’t discredit the real thing, you construct something which suits your purposes and then show its weaknesses. Poor thinking. Bad style. Detractors of homeopathy are good at that. See below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/disinformation-homeopathy_b_969627.html
Watch this preview of a new film about homeopathy around the world…
The peace campaigner Brian Haw has died.
May he rest in peace
“I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.” (Mark Twain)
Look at:
Big Pharma firms spend twice as much on promotion as on research and development (R&D). But it is worse than that: more and more medical R&D is organized as promotional campaigns to make physicians aware of products. The bulk of the industry’s external funding for research now goes to contract research organizations to produce studies that feed into large numbers of articles submitted to medical journals.
Read on:
Two world-renowned experts on vaccine safety find their moral integrity severely questioned. Read on:
While any debate over dangerous side-effects of vaccination (especially concerning the MMR vaccine) has been effectively stifled in the UK, the debate rages on in the US. Whereas we have a physics professor in the UK (the telegenic Prof Brian Cox) who thinks it appropriate to settle the MMR debate once and for all by declaring that there is no evidence for any vaccine damage related to that vaccination, in the US there is a group of lawyers who seriously question its safety. It seems that at this stage it is more irresponsible to suppress the debate than to have it out in the open.
Click for more: