The following books, articles and websites offer readers more information about the topics discussed in each chapter. Many of the references are books aimed at the general reader, but we have also included some key research papers, which can either be downloaded from the web or ordered at your local library. We have deliberately listed only a few of the main research papers relating to each alternative therapy, but these papers include references to many other pieces of research mentioned in this book. Additional references are available at www.trickortreatment.com
Chapter 1: How Do You Determine the Truth?
Wootton, David, Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates, OUP, 2006.
Porter, Roy, Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine, Allen Lane, 2002.
Harvie, David, Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy, Sutton, 2005.
Evans, I., Thornton, H., Chalmers, I., Testing Treatments: Better Research for Better Healthcare, British Library, 2006.
Doll, R., Hill, A. B., 'The mortality of doctors in relation to their smoking habits', British Medical Journal 1954; 228:1451–5.
Moore, A., McQuay, H., Bandolier's Little Book of Making Sense of the Medical Evidence, OUP, 2006.
Chapter 2: The Truth About Acupuncture
Kaptchuk, T. J., The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine, McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Ernst, E., White, A., Acupuncture: A Scientific Appraisal: A Scientific Approach, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999.
Evans, D., Placebo: Mind Over Matter in Modern Medicine, OUP, 2004.
Linde, K., et al., 'Acupuncture for Patients with Migraine: A Randomised Controlled Trial', JAMA 2005; 293:2118–25.
White, A., Rampes, H., Campbell, J. L., 'Acupuncture and related interventions for smoking cessation', Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2006.
Ernst, E., 'Acupuncture – a critical analysis', J Intern Med 2006; 259:125–37.
Chapter 3: The Truth About Homeopathy
Shelton, J. W., Homeopathy: How It Really Works, Prometheus, 2003.
Hempel, S., The Medical Detective: John Snow, Cholera and the Mystery of the Broad Street Pump, Granta, 2007.
Ernst, E., 'Evaluation of homeopathy in Nazi Germany', Br Homeopath J 1995; 84:229.
Maddox, J., Randi, J., Stewart, W. W., 'High-dilution experiments a delusion', Nature 1988; 334: 287–91.
Linde, K., 'Impact of Study Quality on Outcome in Placebo-Controlled Trials of Homeopathy', Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1999; 52:631–636.
Shang, A., et al., 'Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy', Lancet 2005; 366:726–32.
Ernst, E., 'A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy' Br J Clin Pharmacol 2002; 54:577–82.
Chapter 4: The Truth About Chiropractic Therapy
Salsburg, D., The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century, Owl, 2002.
Ernst, E., Canter, P. H., 'A systematic review of systematic reviews of spinal manipulation', J R Soc Med 2006; 99:192–6.
Benedetti, P., MacPhail, W., Spin Doctors: The Chiropractic Industry Under Examination, Dundern, 2002.
Schmidt, K., Ernst, E., 'MMR vaccination advice over the Internet', Vaccine 2003; 21:1044–7.
Jonas, W. B., Ernst, E., 'Evaluating the safety of complementary and alternative products and practices', published in Jonas, W., Levin, J. (eds), Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
Chapter 5: The Truth About Herbal Medicine
Hurley, Dan, Natural Causes: Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry, Broadway, 2006.
Fugh-Berman, A., The 5-minute herbal and dietary supplement consult, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2003.
Herr, S. M., Ernst, E., Young, V. S. L., Herb-drug interaction handbook, Church Street Books, 2002.
Ulbricht, C. E., Basch, E. M. (eds), Natural Standard Herb & Supplement Reference: Evidence-Based Clinical Reviews, Elsevier Mosby, 2005.
Whyte, J., Bad Thoughts: A Guide to Clear Thinking, Corvo, 2003.
Chapter 6: Does the Truth Matter?
Goldacre, B., Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2008.
Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., 'Celebrity-based medicine', MJA 2006; 185:680–81.
Colquhoun, D., 'Science degrees without the science', Nature 2007; 446:373–4.
Weeks, L., Verhoef, M., Scott, C., 'Presenting the alternative: cancer and complementary and alternative medicine in the Canadian print media', Support Care Cancer 2007; 15:931–8.
Appendix
Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., Boddy, K., The Desktop Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach (2nd edition), Mosby, 2006.
Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., Boddy, K., Complementary Therapies for Pain Management: An Evidence-Based Approach, Mosby, 2007.
Jonas, W. (ed.), Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Mosby, 2005.
Hendler, S. S., Rorvik, D. (eds), PDR for Nutritional Supplements, Blackwell, 2001.
Useful Websites
The James Lind Library: www.jameslindlibrary.org
The Cochrane Collaboration: www.cochrane.org
Bandolier (evidence-based healthcare website): www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/Bandolier
Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies (FACT) www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/
NIH, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine www.nccam.nih.gov
Healthwatch: www.healthwatch-uk.org
Exeter University, Complementary Medicine Department: www.pms.ac.uk/compmed/
Simon Singh's homepage: www.simonsingh.net
Trick or Treatment? homepage: www.trickortreatment.com