 |
|
Snake Oil for the 21st Century
Michael Bigby, MD
From the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Arch Dermatol. 1998;134:1512-1514.
|
|
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
|
|
|
Dermatology has been associated with quackery for at least a century. The dictionary defines a quack as "a pretender to medical knowledge or skill; ignorantly or falsely pretending to cure."1 The term quack is derived from quacksalver, or one who quacks like a duck in promoting his salves.2 Quacksalvers hacked many potions, including snake oil, with claims that it cured everything from dermatitis to rheumatism. With the current promulgation of skin "products" and their promotion and even sale by dermatologists, and the use of treatments of no proven efficacy, this association between dermatology and quackery is set to continue well into the 21st century. The list of offending treatments includes silicone gel sheets and onion extract cream (Mederma) for keloids,  -hydroxy acid creams and peels, topical ascorbic acid and phytonadione, "laser resurfacing," and cimetidine for warts, to name only a few.
This seemingly unrelated collection of . . . [Full Text of this Article]
 CiteULike  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter
What's this?
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
|
What Proportion of Dermatological Patients Receive Evidence-Based Treatment?
Abeni et al.
Arch Dermatol 2001;137:771-776.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Welcome to Evidence-Based Medicine
Bigby
Arch Dermatol 1998;134:1516-1517.
FULL TEXT
|
