"Esoteric", "false therapies with illusory efficiency", "quackery", "deception" ... In these violent terms, 124 doctors and health professionals describe certain alternative medicines and their prescription in a forum recently published by the blog "Fake medicine". ¹

Practices "neither scientific nor ethical (...) based on beliefs promising a miraculous cure and without risks" that they condemn firmly.

Doctors, Council of the Order and public authorities on the dock

First targeted by this message: doctors who have a double cap (doctors-homeopaths, doctors-acupuncturists ...), whom they consider as "representatives of trade of unscrupulous industries" and accuse to provide care "without no scientific basis ". Also pointed out, the order of the doctors and the public authorities. Too complaisant according to them, they accuse them of tolerating "practices that disagree with their own Code of Ethics" for one, and to organize - even to participate - "in financing these practices" for others.

Fake medicines that the signatories deem to be "ineffective beyond the placebo effect" and "dangerous" because, according to them, they are based on the growing distrust of the French towards medicine. conventional, already highly suspicious vis-à-vis the health authorities ( compulsory vaccination , change Levothyrox formula ...). A lack of confidence probably caused by the many health scandals of recent years ( Dépakine , Picks, Essure ...). Similarly, they fear that " their use delays diagnosis and necessary treatment with sometimes dramatic consequences, especially in the management of serious diseases such as cancer."

A situation that deserves according to them a clarification and changes, with, inter alia, a ban "to report their title doctors or health professionals who continue to promote"; stopping recognition "in any way of homeopathy, mesotherapy or acupuncture diplomas such as medical diplomas or qualifications"; or the cessation of reimbursement by "social contributions care, drugs or treatments from disciplines refusing their rigorous scientific evaluation."

The counterattack of homeopathic doctors

Faced with this attack, the response of the National Union of French Homeopathic Doctors (SNMHF) was not long in coming. The day after the publication of the forum, the latter was keen to respond to it via a press release ² . The SNMHF regrets that we "stigmatize doctors who use different therapies." Adding that "since 1932, the National Union of French Homeopathic Physicians has so often responded to the medical, scientific and regulatory arguments advanced by the opponents of homeopathy that it has become useless to do so."

The union reminds the signatories that homeopathic doctors are "just as competent in diagnosis and medical prescription as they are, so patient with their patients and aware of the limits of their practice."

And to conclude: "Our conviction is that there is only one medicine: it is based on the reliability of a diagnosis which indicates the therapeutic strategy to be implemented in the respect of the patient. the doctors !"

In France, the Ordre des médecins officially recognizes four complementary medicines: homeopathy, acupuncture, mesotherapy and osteopathy . Practices widely acclaimed (56% of French people reported using homeopathy in 2015), practiced by nearly 6,000 doctors, and more and more exploited as supportive care in hospitals (neonatalogy, oncology, palliative care, gastroenterology, consultations anti tobacco...).

¹ http://fakemedecine.blogspot.fr
² http://www.snmhf.net/news/press-releases/345-press-press-committee-19-mars-2018