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eCAM Advance Access published online on February 6, 2009
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nen089
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The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Commentary

Winnowing the Chaff of Charlatanism from the Wheat of Science

E. Ernst*

Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, 25 Victoria Park Road, Exeter EX2 4NT, UK

Experts and lay people alike can sometimes find it difficult to demarcate the absurd. Here I propose a set of criteria that may be helpful in achieving this in the realm of healthcare: falsifiability, plausibility and some hallmarks of pseudoscience. Applying this method is unlikely to be fool-proof but it might be a valuable aid in discriminating credible from incredible health claims.

Keywords: health claims – falsifiability – plausibility – pseudoscience – alternative medicine

For reprints and all correspondence: E. Ernst, Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, 25 Victoria Park Road, Exeter EX2 4NT, UK. Tel: +44 1392 424989; Fax: +44 1392 427562; E-mail: Edzard.Ernst{at}pms.ac.uk

*Co-author of ‘Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial’.

Received November 3, 2008; accepted December 17, 2008


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