About the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health
The Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH) was inaugurated on November 13, 2003, with a symposium at the New York Academy of Medicine. The Commission is devoted to the scientific examination of unproven alternative medicine and mental health therapies, which have become increasingly popular in the United States and the world.
The executive committee of the Commission has issued the following statement:
"Aberrant remedies are often offered uncritically as alternative or complementary to mainstream medicine. They include everything from untested herbal medicines, homeopathy, and aromatherapy to the use of acupuncture, therapeutic touch, prayer at a distance, faith healing, chelation therapy, and purportedly miraculous cancer cures. Similarly, a wide variety of untested treatments and therapies have flourished in popularity in the field of mental health. Still other techniques are widely used even though they are questionable on scientific grounds. Although some of these techniques may ultimately prove to be effective, it is disturbing that their use greatly outstrips the scientific evidence."
The statement continues:
"The Commission believes that the need for objective, scientific evaluations of alternative or non-conventional medicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy has never been greater, making five observations:
- There is a lack of readily available, scientifically supported information about the efficacy of such treatments. This impairs patients' free choice and increases risks to their health. The potential harm appears to be growing.
- The media all too often dote on controversial claims but unfortunately provide all too few careful examinations of them. Often what the public hears is anecdotal testimony of people allegedly cured, not the results of scientific research. Many best-selling books promote the power of such alleged healings, but they hardly pass the scrutiny of peer review.
- Several new journals devoted exclusively to alternative medicine have appeared recently, but they merely advocate unconventional treatments and rarely assess them objectively.
- Both the public and some medical and mental health professionals seem unaware that credible, scientific assessments of many alternative health claims already exist and that new scientific evaluations are possible. There is thus a critical need to test new claims before they are marketed to the public.
"Much dubious research has been widely promoted in the Internet, newspapers, television and radio that has later been found to be flawed. Unfortunately, news coverage demonstrates that many in the media are often misinformed about the quality of the research and the need to qualify the importance or to suspend judgment until a full review by the scientific community has a chance to expose shortcomings. The Commission will actively communicate the need for balanced media coverage of provocative research in alternative medicine and mental health practice."
The members of the commission include a distinguished list of nearly 100 fellows. Among them are Baruj Benacerraf, M.D. (Nobel Laureate), Arthur Kornberg, M.D. (Nobel Laureate), Leon Lederman, Ph.D. (Nobel Laureate), Silvio Garattini (Italy), Sergei Kaptiza, Ph.D. (Russia), Elizabeth Loftus. Ph.D., Sir John Maddox (UK), Albert Ellis, Ph.D., and Donald Klein, Ph.D.
The executive committee of the new Commission includes Paul Kurtz, Ph.D. (SUNY at Buffalo) chairman, Wallace Sampson, M.D. (Stanford University), Scott Lilienfeld, Ph.D. (Emory University), and Andrew Skolnick, M.S., former associate editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
