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I don't see this from what you have said at all.There are two elements to a homeopathic consult:
1) Genuine beneficial intervention, such as the style of the consult itself, the nice chat, the power of the placebo effect etc; and
2) Unscientific mumbo jumbo, being the remedy itself and the theory behind it.
Conventional medicine should seek to extract 1) from the whole and use it ethically and ditch 2). There would be no need to label this an 'alternative' approach, but it would retain the cost-effectiveness and efficiacy criteria you mention.
Your suggested double-blind trial would not be fair unless it appropriately distinguished the effects of 1) from the non-effects of 2).
Permalink Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:40:00 UTC | #443734