Is it ethical to lie to patients?

I ask this question because a number of people have spoken to me about SPECAL care (Specialised early care in alzheimer’s… erm… care- it’s like PIN number). Back in August 2008 there was this article in the Guardian by media psychologist Oliver James. Author of this book: Contented Dementia, which discusses SPECAL and he thinks it is great.

Hang on a mo, have a look at the 4th paragraph:

“There is a desperate need for an alternative form of care. Believe it or not, my mother-in-law has discovered it. I must be the only man in Britain who would like my mother-in-law to look after me if I had dementia. She is called Penny Garner and her method enables family members or professional carers to deliver 24-hour wellbeing to people with dementias. Amazingly, we are still on good terms after spending a year producing a book that now makes her method available to everyone.”

The interesting article he wrote in August 2009 has been commented on by the mental nurse blog which is well worth a read, I have tracked down a copy of the RCN report on SPECAL so I thought I’d blog a bit on the evidence base.

Now read on:

It’s just a little prick

[BPSDB]

But does it do any good?

I’m referring to acupuncture which is being puffed, sorry reported on, by the BBC again today in this article.

Confusion you say, now what confusion would that be I wonder? Nothing to do with the media portrayal of previous studies surely.

MMR again

So the Lancet have published another paper on MMR, and this time it’s not Wakefield, well sort of.

It’s all in the mind surely?

[BPSDB]

I was navel gazing and having a look at which of my rants was the most read, it seems that it was the one on electrosensitivity. So lets have a talk about medically unexplained symptoms shall we?

Snoring kills, no really…

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I was reading a car magazine last week and found an advert selling SnorBan With the strap-line “Snoring Driving fatigue can be fatal”.

Are you lonesome tonight?

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Well, if you live in Edinburgh you are likely to be according to this you are more likely to be.

The biology of crime

Before I start I have to thank jdc, Ben Goldacre’s mini blog on the Badscience.net site and Cynical OT from the Bad Science forum for pointing this article out to me.

I’m starting to think I should add “bad media” to my byline…

The link in the mini blog is to the ITV news report on a study examining the cortisol response of the body to stress in adolescent males with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (F91.3). The report has been described as flaky,

The obfuscating nature of electrosmog

[BPSDB]

I thought I had dreamed this but I found it on the “Today” website , at about 6:45 this morning I heard an interview about phone masts and electrosensitivity. Now this has been blogged at length by others, notably here,  but I was struck by the folowing exchange:

When asked if he would take part in a blinded study of electrosensitivity the gentleman who was expounding the view that phone masts etc were the cause of ill health said:

Flatliners, the research project…

I really should stop listening to the Today programme, mind you if I did what would I have to blog about?

Why am I writing again, well today I heard the following story about a research project on “out of body experiences”

A pill to help the world

Now I’m not sure quite what to make of this, I was listening to the radio on the way heard and caught the start of a story about a fish oil trial in prisons. I didn’t listen but thought I would when I got home,I forgot but I was reminded of it by Norbury on the Bad Science forum.

Just like Norbury I had a sinking feeling mainly because of the Durham fish oil non trial.

But this seems a bit different.