A very bad report on regulating complementary medicine

doi:10.1136/bmj.a591

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David Colquhoun, research professor of pharmacology

¹University College London, London WC1E 6BT

d.colquhoun{at}ucl.ac.uk

I think that in this instance the Department of Health is right to think again about the recommendations in Pittilo’s report.1 Both the department and the report have tried to separate the question of safety from the question of efficacy. But that is surely nonsense. You can’t consider the cost-benefit ratio for any course of action without knowing something about the benefit. In fact the report does consider the efficacy of herbalism and acupuncture, …