The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and Aberrant Medical Practices

This is the only peer-reviewed journal devoted exclusively to objectively analyzing the claims of “altermative medicine.” Its purpose is to apply the best tools of science and reason to determine whether hypotheses are valid and treatments are effective. It will reject no claims because it fits, or fails to fit, some paradigm. It will simply seek justified answers to two questions: “Is it true?” and “Does this treatment work?” Its publication has been endorsed by the Council for Scientific Medicine, a panel that includes 50 prominent physicians and scientists and five Nobel prizewinners.   Other publications that focus on unconventional therapies merely advocate them and rarely assess them objectively. Published twice yearly, this journal will include: Critiques of published studies Evaluations of evidence for claims Commentary on methods and principles of valid research. Reports of original research Book reviews

Publisher: Paul Kurtz
Editor in Chief: Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Stanford University
Managing Editor: Meghann French
Science Editor: Saul Green, PhD
Associate Editors: Barry Beyerstein, PhD, Timothy Gorski, MD, Steven Novella, MD
Senior Editor: Michael K. Botts, Esq.

Contributing Editors:

General Medicine Kimball Atwood, MD, Boston, MA Robert S. Baratz, MD, DDS, PhD, Boston, MA Stephen Basser, MD, Australia Willem Betz, MD, Brussels, Belgium Faith Fitzgerald, MD, Davis, CA Richard Gordon, MD, Australia Melvin Kirschner, MD, MPH, Los Angeles, CA Robert M. Kohn, MD, Amherst, NY Maurie Markman, MD, Cleveland, OH Gary Posner, MD, Tampa, FL Abba Terr, MD, San Francisco George Ulett, MD, PhD, St. Louis, MO Gerald Weissmann, MD, New York, NY Nutrition Ann Coulston, PhD, RD, Palo Alto, CA Judi Morrill, PhD, RD, Menlo Park, CA Jack Raso, MS, RD, New York, NY Nancy Tullis, RD, Louisville, KY Psychology James Alcock, PhD, Toronto, Ontario Peter Barglow, MD, Davis, CA Barry Beyerstein, PhD, Burnaby, British Columbia Ray Hyman, PhD, Eugene, OR Loren Pankratz, PhD, Portland, OR Sally Satel, MD, Washington, DC Ethics Dónal P. O’Mathúna, PhD, PhD, Columbus, OH Donald Pinkel, MD, San Antonio, TX Lawrence Schneiderman, AM, San Diego, CA Biochemistry Arthur Kornberg, MD, Palo Alto, CA Elie Shneour, MD, San Diego, CA Rosemary Szostak, PhD, Atlanta, GA Thomas Wheeler, PhD, Louisville, KY

Biology William Bennetta, PhD, Petaluma, CA James A. Lowell, PhD Tucson, AZ Davis Schafer, PhD, New Haven, CT Gregory Smith, Calgary, Alberta Physics, Mathematics, Statistics Jean Mielczarek, PhD, Fairfax, VA Marvin Minsky, PhD, Boston, MA Jan Willem Nienhuys, PhD, Eithoven, Netherlands Robert Park, PhD Washington, DC Victor Stenger, PhD, Honolulu, HI Pharmacology Robert Dorr, PhD, Tucson, AZ Arthur Grollman, MD, Stony Brook, NY Veijo Saano, MD, Kuopio, Finland Lynn Willis, PhD, Indianapolis, IN Pseudoscience Stephen Barrett, MD, Allentown, PA Richard Gordon, MD, Australia Rebecca Long, Atlanta, GA Beta Scheiber, MBS, Boulder, CO Nursing Vern L. Bullough, PhD, RN, Northridge, CA Jan Eisler, RN, St. Petersburg, FL Robert Glickman, RN, Philadelphia, PA Public Health William T. Jarvis, PhD, Loma Linda, CA William London, EdD, MPH, Pacific Palisades, CA Veterinary Medicine Robert Imrie, DVM, Seattle, WA David Ramey, DVM, Glendale, CA

CONTENTS

• A Statement in Defense of Scientific Medicine from the Council for Scientific Medicine

Winter 2001 (Volume 5, Number 1)

• In Memory of John Renner, MD (1932-2000)
• White House Commission Stacked against Science, by Timothy N. Gorski, MD, and E. Patrick Curry
• Psychic Healing of a Case of Glioblastoma Multiforme in a Three-Month-Old Infant, by Barbara G. Koopman
• Alternativism and Public Health, by William T. Jarvis, PhD
• Opposition to Immunization: A Pattern of Deception, by Edward R. Friedlander, MD
• Opposition to Community Water Fluoridation and Connections to the “Alternative Medicine” Movement, by Michael W. Easley, DDS, MPH
• Dental Silver-Amalgam Fillings: Are Dentists Poisoning Their Patierits? by John E. Dodes, DDS
• Multiple Chemical Sensitivities: An latrogenically Perpetuated Disorder and Example of the Nocebo Effect, by Ronald E. Gots, MD, PhD, and D. V. Hamilton
• Is the Chiropractic Subluxation Theory a Threat to Public Health? by Samuel Homola, DC
• Book Review: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Dean Edell, MD), by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP

Fall/Winter 2000 (Volume 4, Number 2)

• An Irreplaceable Person: In Memory of Thomas Jukes, PhD (1906-1999)
• Medical Claims for Intercessory Prayer Remain Elusive, by Kevin Courcey, RN
• Are Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Sufficient As Well As Necessary for Assessing the Medical Effectiveness of Prayer? by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Product Definition Deficiencies in Clinical Studies of Herbal Medicines, by Varro E. Tyler, PhD
• Herbal Crisis in Europe: A Review of the Epidemic of Renotoxicity from Chinese Herbal Remedies, by Willem Betz, MD
• Chinese Herbs: Some Things to Remember, by Bill Burley
• Phytopharmaceuticals: Problems, Limitations, and Solutions, by Susan J. Murch, Sankaran KrishnaRaj, and Praveen K. Saxena
• Phytopharmaccuticals: Mass-Production, Standardization, and Conservation, by Susan J. Murch, Sankaran KrishnaRaj, and Praveen K. Saxena
• Identification of Cytotoxic Agent in Kombucha Herbal Medicine, by Susan DiGeorgio, PhD, RPh, and Jerry L. McLaughlin, PhD, RPh
• The Irrational Reformation, by Rochelle Barnes
• Book Review: The Monkey Gland Affair (David Hamilton), by Catherine Arnott Smith, MA, MLS, MSIS
• Book Review: Chiropractic: The Greatest Hoax of the Century? (L.A. Chotkowski, MD), by William T. Jarvis, PhD
• Book Review: Alternative Health Care: Medicine, Miracle, or Mirage? (Michael Goldstein, PhD), by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP

Spring/Summer 2000 (Volume 4, Number 1)

• Can Alternative Treatments Induce Immune Surveillance over Cancer in Humans? by Saul Green, PhD
• A Historical Approach to U.S. Trends Peter Barglow and in Alternative Medicine Use, by Alison Klairmont
• Another Controversial Effort to Establish the Medical Efficacy of Intercessory Prayer, by Gary P. Posner, MD
• Postmodern Medicine, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Postmodern Promotion of Alternative Medicine, by Dónal P. O’Mathúna, PhD
• Living on Borrowed Authority: Postmodernism and Methods of Presentation, by David F. Mercer
• Postmodernism, Science, and the Sublime, by Gerald Weissmann, MD
• Healing Is Believing: Postmodernism Impacts Nursing, by Susan Anthony Salladay, RN, PhD
• Science and Postmodern Criticism, by Jim Leffel

Fall/Winter 1999 (Volume 3, Number 2)

• A Special Issue, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• How I Learned Not to Believe Carlos Castaneda, by Richard de Mille
• Chinese Acupuncture for Heart Surgery Anesthesia, by Gary P. Posner, MD and Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Social and Judgmental Biases That Make Inert Treatments Seem to Work, by Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD
• The Mischief-Making of Ideomotor Action, by Ray Hyman, PhD
• Alternative Medicine and the Psychology of Belief, by James E. Alcock, PhD
• Perception of Conventional Sensory Cues, as an Alternative to the Postulated ‘Human Energy Field’ of Therapeutic Touch, by Rebecca Long, Paul Bernhardt, PhD, and William Evans, PhD
• Do the Eisenberg Data Hold Up? by Timothy Gorski, MD
• Religiosity and Health, by Keven Courcey, RN
• The Making of a Complementary Medicine Man, by E. Patrick Curry

Spring/Summer 1999 (Volume 3, Number 1)

• On Deciding When Something Is Real, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• In Defense of Science over Pseudoscience in University Education, by the Editors
• Correspondence: Promoting the Unproven, and more
• Bioenergetic Fields, by Victor Stenger, PhD
• The Fear of Weak Electromagnetic Fields, by Robert K. Adair, PhD
• Magnet Therapy, by Leonard Finegold, PhD
• Acupuncture: A History, by Stephen Basser, MB, BS, MBA
• Does Acupuncture Affect Labor and Delivery? by Timothy Gorski, MD
• AM Comes to Shadyside Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, by E. Patrick Curry
• Exploring Links Between Religion/Spirituality and Health by Harold Koenig, MD, and others
• Book Review: Coyote Medicine (Lewis Mehl-Madrona) by E. Patrick Curry

Fall/Winter 1998 (Volume 2, Number 2):

• The Braid of the ‘Alternative Medicine’ Movement, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Nicholas Gonzales Treatment for Cancer, by Saul Green, PhD
• A Review of the Journal Alternative Therapies, by Peter Barglow
• An Examination of Media Coverage of a Prayer Study-in-Progress, by Gary P. Posner
• Evaluation of a Study on Homeopathy and Its Accompanying Publicity, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• The DiBella Controversy: The Universality of Popular Delusion, by the Editors
• The Continuing Case of Nicholas Gonzales, by Victor Herbert, MD, JD
• A Critique of an Official UK View of Complementary Medicine, by Wayne Spencer
• Chiropractic Goes to University, by Michael M. DeRobertis, PhD
• Evaluation of a Study on the Possible Validity of Acupoints, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• The Allure of Quackpot Theories, by Jami Bernard
• Book Review: Healing with Homeopathy (Jacobs and Jonas), Robert L. Park, Ph.D
• Book Review: The Logic of Medicine (Murphy), by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP

Spring/Summer 1998 (Volume 2, Number 1):

• On Being a Critic, by Wallace Sampson, MD, FACP.
• Oxygenation Therapy: Unproven Treatments for Cancer and AIDS, by Saul Green, PhD
• Magnetic and Electromagnetic Therapy, by David W. Ramey, DVM.
• Naturopathy, by Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD, and Susan Downie
• Pharmacology of St. John’s Wort, by Camilla Cracchiolo, RN
• Earth Save’s Brochure for Children: An Assessment, by Nancy C. Tullis, RD
• Therapeutic Touch: Investigation of a Practitioner, by Robert Glickman, RN, and Ed. J. Gracely, PhD
• Enounter with a Dubious Cancer Doctor, by Suzanne Henig
• On the National Institute of Drug Abuse Consensus Conference on Acupuncture, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Therapeutic Touch: What Could Be the Harm?, by Dónal P. O’Mathúna, PhD
• Medical Ethics and Alternative Medicine, by Lawrence J. Schneiderman, MD

Fall/Winter 1997 (Volume 1, Number 1):

• Is Homeopathy ‘New Science’ or ‘New Age,’ by Mahlon W. Wagner, ParrmD
• Therapeutic Touch: Evaluating the ‘Growing Body of Evidence’ Claim
• Therapeutic Touch: Tracing Back to Mesmer, by George Ulett, MD, PhD
• Hydrazine Sulfare: Is It an Anticancer Agent?, by Saul Green, PhD.
• The Pharmacology of Chelation Therapy, by Wallace I. Sampson, MD, FACP
• Quantum Metaphysics, by Victor Stenger, PhD
• Criteria of Good Research, by Saul Green, PhD
• Book Review: Andrew Weil’s 8 Weeks to Optimum Health , by John H. Renner, MD

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (ISSN 1095-0656)

SRAM is now published twice a year. Annual subscriptions are $60 for individuals in the United States and Canada, $70 for individuals overseas, and $100 for institutions everywhere. Postage is included. Call (800) 421-0351 or mail order to SRAM, Prometheus Books, 59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, NY 14228.

This page was revised on August 15, 2002.