The criticisms of the Shang paper are incorrect. The major point of that paper was to select trials only on the quality of the trial. The outcome of the trial was not considered a priori. Two main criticisms arose 1) The list of trials was not published, this was corrected later and 2) By selecting which trials you include based on the outcome, you could sway the final result. The latter is ludicrous. By cherry picking your results, you can falsely prove anything.
The Linde papers are often exhibited as proof of homeopathy effectiveness. They showed the same effect as Shang, no significant difference between homeopathy treatment and placebo. That, having found no significant difference, to say in the conclusion of one of their papers that this didn't mean that homeopathy wasn't effective, was just plain wrong. It is instructive to note, when Linde was commenting on his own, he clearly says there is no difference between homeopathy and placebo. Incidentally, Linde also found the same effect as Shang, only lower quality studies show an effect for homeopathy.
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Different Anonymous :}
The criticisms of the Shang paper are incorrect. The major point of that paper was to select trials only on the quality of the trial. The outcome of the trial was not considered a priori. Two main criticisms arose 1) The list of trials was not published, this was corrected later and 2) By selecting which trials you include based on the outcome, you could sway the final result. The latter is ludicrous. By cherry picking your results, you can falsely prove anything.
The Linde papers are often exhibited as proof of homeopathy effectiveness. They showed the same effect as Shang, no significant difference between homeopathy treatment and placebo. That, having found no significant difference, to say in the conclusion of one of their papers that this didn't mean that homeopathy wasn't effective, was just plain wrong. It is instructive to note, when Linde was commenting on his own, he clearly says there is no difference between homeopathy and placebo. Incidentally, Linde also found the same effect as Shang, only lower quality studies show an effect for homeopathy.
February 6, 2012 - 1:53pmThis Comment
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