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Perceptions of evidence‐based medicine: traditional acupuncturists in the UK and resistance to biomedical modes of evaluation
Author(s) -
Jackson Sue,
Scambler Graham
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2007.00494.x
Subject(s) - resistance (ecology) , perception , alternative medicine , medicine , family medicine , medical education , psychology , pathology , neuroscience , ecology , biology
Acupuncture and other types of ‘complementary and alternative medicine’ (CAM) are proving increasingly popular in the UK. As attempts to incorporate acupuncture into allopathic medicine have grown in number, the issue of assessing its effectiveness in ways consistent with the concept of evidence‐based medicine has become more urgent. The nature, relevance and applicability of such assessments remain controversial however. This paper reports a qualitative study of acupuncturists’ own perceptions of evidence and evidence‐based medicine in relation to their therapeutic interventions. The material is presented in two main sections: explaining how acupuncture works, and resisting evidence‐based medicine. The interviews reveal a great deal of scepticism and ambivalence and a deep questioning of the salience of conventional (biomedical) modes of evaluation of interventions.