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I have been sent an email where a recruitment consultant was looking for someone to train as a ‘drug worker’ using a technique called Neuro-Electric Therapy (NET) to work on a Scottish substance misuse programme. The idea appears to be that by passing small electrical currents though someone in a specific pattern you could help people overcome drug addictions. It is quite a remarkable claim. Drug addiction is a complex problem. It cannot just be simplistically reduced to biological causes with corresponding direct treatments. Drug addiction sits within much wider psychological and sociological framework and there are no magic bullets. Even within a wider treatment regime, it would appear remarkable that electric shocks can play any role. But the job advert says, The successful candidates will get the opportunity...

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Let me tell you a few stories about how I have nearly stopped blogging. Some of these stories you may know; others I have not talked about before. The events behind these stories have all hinged on England’s illiberal and antiquated approach to defamation laws. Those laws must change and here is why. Writing a blog, surprisingly, is not without its serious risks. Hobbies like skiing, diving or playing rubgy can leave you badly injured or even killed. Blogging a weekly article on a subject of your interest can also leave you with a ruined life. In the case of blogging, that risk comes from English libel laws that expose writers to the real danger that they may be financially ruined. When you chose to write about a subject...

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From Richard Lanigan’s blog, we learn that the head of the four chiropractic associations have written to the GCC to state that their members have no confidence in their regulatory abilities. Richard Brown, President of the British Chiropractic Association has written the letter, co-signed by Ross McDonald, Kevin Proudman and Bernadette Martin, the Presidents of the Scottish Chiropractors, the United Chiropractic Association and the McTimoney Chiropractors respectively. The letter notes that the BCA recorded a vote of no confidence in the GCC at their AGM. The Scottish Chiropractors also passed a vote of no confidence, and the others held an online survey to judge their members feelings. The GCC is a statutory regulator. That is, anyone wishing to practice as a chiropractor in the UK must be registered and...

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The Society of Homeopath’s response to the latest BBC revelations was entirely predictable. The BBC investigation uncovered how homeopaths appear to be routinely offering their sugar pills as an alternative to childhood vaccinations such as MMR. Such unethical and unthinking behaviour can only lead to children being exposed to potentially dangerous infections. Doctors appeared to have been shocked by these findings. But they should not have been. Antagonistic beliefs towards standard medical care, particularly vaccinations, is the norm in the homeopathic community. Indeed, homeopathy was founded on the principle that its beliefs are the One True Way and that other doctors use medicines to actually harm their patients, not cure them. So, the Society of Homeopaths issued a press release that followed a very predictable format. They state that...

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The UK health care system is about to undergo a major overhaul in how services are funded. Currently, tax funded Primary Care Trusts, based on geographical regions, have contracts with hospitals to provide the services that the NHS delivers. The PCTs decide what types of treatments and services are a priority for funding and negotiates the prices that shall be paid. All that is about to change.In a move that was not contained in either of the coalition government party’s manifestos, the PCTs will be abolished and the responsibility for commissioning services will be handed over to GPs – the doctors on the front line of patient care. Groups of GPs will form consortia to commission the services they want to deliver using money given to them from government...

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