New Scientist - 09.11.2019

(Grace) #1
9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 3

DO YOU know what they call alternative
medicine that’s been proved to work?
Medicine. So says Tim Minchin in his
poem “Storm”, in which he makes the
case for evidence-led treatment.
We have a long history of therapies
that first seemed bananas, only to be
proved marvellous medicine. In the
1980s, two Australian scientists showed
that stomach ulcers were caused by
bacteria, not stress. As a result, simple
antibiotics could treat a problem once
considered incurable. But the medical
establishment took some persuading.
The pair won a Nobel prize, for having
the “tenacity to challenge the prevailing
dogma”. Tenacity is just what is needed
now, in identifying the place of hypnosis
in mainstream medicine (see page 34).
People are right to be sceptical, given
its fantastical origins, but evidence is

accumulating that hypnosis has real
promise as a medical therapy – helping
doctors perform surgery with fewer side
effects and at lower cost, minimising
chronic pain, improving weight loss
techniques and potentially aiding an
international addiction crisis.

But no establishment should accept
any alternative medicine until we have
solid evidence of what works, and what
doesn’t. Tenacity only gets you so far.
We also need investment and rigorous
studies. When it comes to hypnosis,
these are still in short supply.
For instance, despite its popularity as

a means to quit smoking, a recent review
found no good evidence that hypnosis
helps. But this doesn’t mean it doesn’t,
says Jamie Hartmann-Boyce at the
University of Oxford, because relevant
research has been so poorly designed it
makes it impossible to say for sure either
way. “It’s such an important issue that
we need... bigger, better trials,” she says.
Hypnosis may be hard to define and
difficult to study, but the pay-offs could
be huge. With suggestions that it can
potentially reduce reliance on opioids,
drugs which kill 130 people in the US
every day due to overdose, surely it is
worth taking seriously.
The jury is in on alternative remedies
like homeopathy, but that shouldn’t
stop us from exploring other unusual
treatments – you never know, it might
just lead to a Nobel prize. ❚

Return of hypnosis


Time to see if it really has a place in mainstream medicine


The leader


“ The jury may be in on therapies
like homeopathy, but that
shouldn't stop us exploring
other unusual treatments”

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