Russian Academy of Sciences Calls Homeopathy Pseudoscience

By Steven Novella

Despite our many political differences, here is one topic about which the United States and Russia should be able to completely agree – homeopathy is pure pseudoscience. In fact Russia may have just taken the lead on this topic.

The Commission Against Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences just published a memorandum (“№2”, so I assume it is only their second) called: “About pseudoscientific homeopathy.” (It’s in Russian but just hit the Google Translate button.) Like the UK and Australia before them, members of the commission reviewed all the evidence regarding homeopathy and concluded:

The Commission argues that the treatment of ultra-low doses of various substances used in homeopathy has no scientific basis. This conclusion is based on a thorough analysis of publications in scientific journals, clinical study reports, compilation and systematic reviews. The Commission confirms that the principles of homeopathy and theoretical explanation of the mechanisms of its alleged actions contradict the known chemical, physical and biological laws and convincing experimental confirmation of its effectiveness are not available. Homeopathic diagnosis and treatment should be qualified as pseudoscientific.

In other words, homeopathy cannot possibly work, and when studied it does not work. How many scientific organizations around the world have to come to this conclusion before governments wake up and do their job?

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