Prof Harald Walach joins ‘THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME’

It’s sad but true: not everyone likes THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME. Take this recent comment, for instance:

It is pathetic to see that Edzard only engages in the systematic harassment of his former colleagues or people who in most cases ignore him. Perhaps because he knows that his battle against homeopathy was totally lost in Germany, Switzerland and Brazil, as could be seen in the imminent failure of the “Questao Da Ciencia Institute”…  Edzard acts as a real bully against Dr. Jacobs by including her in a “hall of fame” to humiliate her before the hoolingans who applaud her, who are always the four guardian trolls who never contribute or benefit to the discussion… 

But then there are others who do appreciate it and recognize that it serves an important purpose: to alert the public to the fact that there is something deeply wrong with much of the published research in so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). Incidentally, this was also the theme of my last post on acupuncture and is the topic of many of my recent articles. Thus the aim of my HALL OF FAME is not to humiliate anyone; it is merely one of many of my attempts to protect the public from misleading information that has the potential to do much harm.

And therefore, I am not likely to close the HALL OF FAME any time soon.

Someone who has been waiting for ages to get admitted is the prolific psychologist Professor Harald Walach. He has in the past changed employment frequently.  After building up a research group in SCAM at the University Hospital in Freiburg he held a research professorship with the University of Northampton, UK from 2005-2009 where he directed the MSc Program of Transpersonal Psychology and Consciousness Studies. From 2010 to 2016, he worked at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), where he headed a postgraduate Master program training doctors in SCAM and cultural sciences. Currently, Walach is affiliated with three institutions:

• Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Medical University Poznan, Poznan, Poland.
• Department of Psychology, University Witten-Herdecke, Witten, Germany.
• Change Health Science Institute, Berlin, Germany

In 2012, Walach was elected pseudoscientist of the year, a fact that should almost automatically unlock the HALL’s door for him. But let’s not be hasty; let’s have a look at his publications. My Medline search for ‘Walach H, clinical trial’ generated 40 hits of which 19 related to clinical studies of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). Here are their conclusions:

1. Both physiotherapy and PPT improve subacute low back pain significantly. PPT is likely more effective and should be studied further.
2. One treatment session of enhanced MMT physiotherapy or RegentK can lead to nearly full function and thus recovery of a ruptured ACL after 1 year.
3. MBSR did not produce cardiac autonomic benefits or changes in daily activity in FM. Furthermore, the lack of an association between patient-experienced clinical improvement and objective physiological measures suggests that subjective changes in the wellbeing of FM patients over time are not related to alterations in the cardiorespiratory autonomic function or activity levels.
4. Mindfulness therapy may prevent disability pension and it may have a potential to significantly reduce societal costs and increase the effectiveness of care. Accumulated weeks of unemployment and sickness benefit are possible risk factors for BDS.
5. Mindfulness therapy is a feasible and acceptable treatment. The study showed that mindfulness therapy was comparable to enhanced treatment as usual in improving quality of life and symptoms.
6. In conclusion, primary outcome analyses did not support the efficacy of MBSR in fibromyalgia, although patients in the MBSR arm appeared to benefit most.
7. Homeopathic remedies produce different symptoms than placebo.
8. We, therefore, conclude that homeopathic remedies produce more symptoms typical for a remedy than non-typical symptoms. The results furthermore suggest a somewhat non-classical pattern because symptoms of one remedy appear to be mimicked in the other trial arm. This might be indicative of entanglement in homeopathic systems.
9. In patients with CFS, distant healing appears to have no statistically significant effect on mental and physical health but the expectation of improvement did improve outcome.
10. Treatments with QUANTEC may be accompanied by beneficial health effects.
11. The results showed that both remedies ‘produced’ significantly more symptoms than placebo. With regard to the specificity, the Calendula officinalis group displayed more remedy-specific symptoms than placebo. However, in the Ferrum muriaticum group more Calendula symptoms than placebo were also recorded.
12. Homeopathic proving symptoms appear to be specific to the medicine and do not seem to be due to a local process.
13. We conclude that in an unselected sample of headache patients some may indeed be susceptible to the low intensity type of electromagnetic radiation exemplified by sferics pulses.
14. We conclude that Bach-flower remedies are an effective placebo for test anxiety and do not have a specific effect.
15. Approximately 30% of patients in homeopathic treatment will benefit after 1 y of treatment. There is no indication of a specific, or of a delayed effect of homeopathy.
16. There is no indication that belladonna 30CH produces symptoms different from placebo or from no intervention. Symptoms of a homeopathic pathogenetic trial (HPT) are most likely chance fluctuations.
17. Chronically ill patients who want to be treated by distant healing and know that they are treated improve in quality of life.
18. Mind machines do not have a specific effect on general well-being and physiological relaxation, although they may produce unusual psychological experiences; people with psychiatric illnesses should not use such devices.
19.  Group evaluation showed no clearcut differences. The claim that homoeopathic potencies can produce symptoms other than placebo in healthy subjects should be put to further scrutiny.

So, as we see, Prof Walach has published many clinical trials on numerous SCAMs . Their majority arrived at positive conclusions. His TI is therefore sky-high. But he has also published studies that were dramatically negative, even some of homeopathy!

The main criterion for admission to THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME is to have published SCAM research that hardly ever concludes negatively. Does Walach fulfill it? Should he be allowed to join this illustrious group of people?

• Andreas Michalsen ( various SCAMs, Germany)
• Jennifer Jacobs (homeopath, US)
• Jenise Pellow (homeopath, South Africa)
• Adrian White (acupuncturist, UK)
• Michael Frass (homeopath, Austria)
• Jens Behnke (research officer, Germany)
• John Weeks (editor of JCAM, US)
• Deepak Chopra (entrepreneur, US)
• Cheryl Hawk (US chiropractor)
• David Peters (osteopathy, homeopathy, UK)
• Nicola Robinson (TCM, UK)
• Peter Fisher (homeopathy, UK)
• Simon Mills (herbal medicine, UK)
• Gustav Dobos (various SCAMs, Germany)
• Claudia Witt (homeopathy, Germany/Switzerland)
• George Lewith (acupuncture, UK)
• John Licciardone (osteopathy, US)

I have to admit, the decision was not easy in this case. However, after considering all the evidence, I have decided in favour of admission.

WELCOME PROF WALACH!