Conventional wisdom has always suggested that only clinical trials conducted under strictly controlled conditions can accurately determine if a treatment works. However, two new reports show that two different study types yield similar results, even though one is considered to be a less-than-definitive type of study.
Researchers compared results of studies looking at vaccines and heart disease drugs as well as treatments for appendicitis and infertility.
The 2 types of studies analyzed were "clinical trials" and "observational studies".
In "clinical trials", study subjects are randomly assigned -- or randomized -- to one treatment or a placebo (inactive) treatment.
In the best case scenario, neither doctors nor patients know which patients received either treatment -- a status known as "double blind."
In "observational studies", doctors collect data on patients who happen to have undergone certain treatments or are taking certain medication.
"For the past 20 years, scientists have generally believed that only evidence from randomized controlled trials was valid for comparing medical treatments," states one of the researchers. "Our results suggest that at least in some cases, the analysis of routinely collected clinical data may provide useful information ... our results do suggest that there may be a greater role for observational studies than previously believed."
The New England Journal of Medicine June 22, 2000;342:1878-1886, 1887-1892, 1907-1909.
This is an important study as it tends to validate the observational model as being equivalent to the strict double blind placebo controlled and randomized scientific studies. The later is very expensive and tends to be funded by the drug companies as they are the ones that benefit from them the most. The former is the one that most natural medicine clinicians are capable of doing. This will be one of the main ways that natural medicine will progress in the future, is through the observations of honest and astute clinicians who are able to share their insights with others.
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