Review article
Herbal medicine, Chaplin, and “The Kid”

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2012.01.010Get rights and content

Abstract

At variance with other largely safe complementary alternative medicines like homeopathy and acupuncture, which only carry the risk of inducing patients to shun effective treatment, herbal remedies are real, albeit impure, drugs and therefore fully capable of producing undesirable consequences if misused. The advantages they offer are uncertain since genuine evidence of efficacy and effectiveness is present in only a few cases. A result of this imbalance is that studies in this field are considerably more meaningful when they deal with untoward effects than with therapeutic uses. This disproportion has suggested to us the curious similarity with the situation portrayed in the film “The Kid” where the essential task of the protagonist (Chaplin) is to repair the windows his stone-throwing child has just broken.

Section snippets

Learning points

  • At variance with other largely safe complementary alternative medicines such as homeopathy and acupuncture, herbal remedies are real, albeit impure, drugs and therefore fully capable of producing undesirable effects if handled without sufficient attention.

  • As opposed to a few good quality papers suggesting medical efficacy, there are numerous studies showing that herbal medicines may be directly toxic or have untoward interactions with prescribed drugs.

  • This disproportion makes studies in the

Conflict of interest statement

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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