camwatch

Tilburt JC, Kaptchuk TJ. Herbal medicine research and global health: an ethical analysis. Bull World Health Organ. 2008 Aug;86(8):594-9. PMID: 18797616

Analysts from the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School describe an ethical framework for research in herbal medicine. Employing an example case of Africa Flower as an investigative therapy to slow progression to AIDS, they develop a framework for ethical decision making based on key criteria of social value, scientific validity and favorable risk-benefit ratio:

"Cases like these present challenging questions related to the role of traditional herbal medicines in public health. In general, international research on traditional herbal medicines should be subject to the same ethical requirements as all research related to human subjects. An ethical framework previously outlined by Emanuel et al. and revised for international research offers a useful starting point for thinking about the ethics of international traditional herbal medicine research. This framework includes eight ethical requirements for clinical research. These ethical requirements are universal and comprehensive but must be adapted to the particular social context in which the research is implemented. Of these, fair subject selection, independent review, informed consent, and respect for enrolled subjects have been discussed previously in the literature on the ethics of global health research and raise few issues unique to international traditional herbal medicine research. However, social value, scientific validity, and favourable risk-benefit ratio raise specific challenges in international herbal medicine research that have not been adequately discussed."

CAMWatch: Posts about free-access, peer-reviewed articles on aspects of complementary medicine theory, practice and policy (about the blogger). This blog is not a source for medical advice.

technorati tags: complementary and alternative medicine integrative medicine

Comments and Links Appreciated!