Scheen A, Lefèbvre P
Bull Mem Acad R Med Belg. 1999;154(7-9):295-304; discussion 304-7.
At a time when scientists support Evidence-Based Medicine, the Parliament of Belgium has recently decided to recognize four alternative medicines, among which homeopathy. Whereas this discipline does not rely on any scientific basis, it appears to be popular, especially in general practice. The homeopaths have recently taken arguments from a meta-analysis published in 1997 in the Lancet of 89 placebo-controlled trials. This study indeed concluded that the results are not compatible with the hypothesis that the clinical effects of homeopathy are completely due to placebo. However, this meta-analysis contains several methodological flaws. Furthermore, it is recognized that results of a meta-analysis may not be confirmed in large well-performed clinical trials. Thus, homeopathy should still provide the evidence that conventional medicine has regularly brought during the last two decades in many fields of therapeutics, with the respect of the rigorous rules of "Good Clinical Practice", leading to "Evidence-Based Medicine".
在科学家们支持循证医学的时代，比利时议会最近决定认可四种替代医学，其中包括顺势疗法。鉴于这一学科没有任何科学依据，它却似乎很受欢迎，尤其是在全科医疗中。顺势疗法从业者最近引用了1997年发表在《柳叶刀》上的一项对89项安慰剂对照试验的荟萃分析中的论据。这项研究确实得出结论，其结果与顺势疗法的临床效果完全归因于安慰剂这一假设不相符。然而，这项荟萃分析存在几个方法学上的缺陷。此外，人们认识到荟萃分析的结果可能无法在大规模、执行良好的临床试验中得到证实。因此，顺势疗法仍应提供传统医学在过去二十年里在许多治疗领域按照“良好临床实践”的严格规则所经常提供的证据，从而形成“循证医学”。
