BMJ  2007;334:507 (10 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39122.551250.BE

Feature

Head to head

Should NICE evaluate complementary and alternative medicines?

Department of Pharmacology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT

Demand for complementary and alternative medicine is high despite limited evidence. Linda Franck and colleagues believe that a thorough review by NICE would benefit the NHS and patients, but David Colquhoun argues that it cannot afford to re-examine evidence that has shown little benefit

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

One of the most important roles of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is to assess which treatments produce sufficient benefit that the National Health Service should pay for them. Since the money available to the NHS is not infinite, making choices of this sort is inevitable, and it is in the interests of patients that dispassionate judgments are made on the efficacy of treatments.

If the effectiveness of a treatment is disputed, what could be more obvious than to refer it to NICE for a judgment of the evidence? Nothing is more disputed than the effectiveness of alternative medicine, so why has NICE not adjudicated? Even the Smallwood report, sponsored by the Prince of Wales, did not pretend to find good evidence, but recommended that NICE should be invited "to carry out a full assessment of the cost-effectiveness of the therapies"¹ The Smallwood report was greeted . . . [Full text of this article]

Unaffordable luxury

Lack of evidence

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Taylor, N., Blackwell, A. (2008). Complementary and Alternative Medicine Familiarization: What's happening in Medical Schools in Wales?. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 0: nem185v1-nem185 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Paterson, C. (2007). Appraisals of specific treatments are needed. BMJ 334: 600-600 [Full text]  

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