Being useless may be useful

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2334

Published 9 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2334
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2334

Letters

Homoeopathic product licence

Being useless may be useful

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

Giving homoeopathy credit for any kind of demonstrable efficacyis ludicrous, and we all know it.¹

However, a good placebo is an incredibly useful (and powerful)therapeutic tool, which should only be used with caution.² Inthis context, and when there is a need to give something moreto a patient than just good words, a truly inactive placebo,with little risk of harm, might actually be useful, if onlyto avoid giving more dangerous but still useless drugs.

The first indication the NHS should consider for homoeopathyis the common cold followed by acute sinusitis (if it doesn’tget better within a week, then use antibiotics), insomnia (aseffective as benzodiazepines after two weeks, and much lessaddictive), and any number of uselessly overtreated illnesses.It should be offered in a choice of colours appropriate to theindication,³ the content being irrelevant, with clear indicationsthat this will not . . . [Full text of this article]

Nicholas Moore, clinical pharmacologist¹

¹ University of Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France

nicholas.moore@pharmaco.u-bordeaux2.fr