The RIAT initiative [Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials] was launched in June 2013 to publish misleading historical clinical findings which, according to Ben Goldacre, may have been ‘unethically hidden from doctors and researchers’. Reuters, September 28, 2015 reported in an online article about the prescription drug paroxetine [paxil], used to treat depression in teenagers.

According to the Reuters article, Dr. Jon Jureidini, of the University of Adelaide, Australia, a coauthor of the reanalysis of the study,  said the drug was not better than if a placebo had been administered, in the treatment of depression, and did more harm, having serious side effects that increased suicidal thoughts.

Such findings are of grave concern, and RIAT must be applauded for taking corrective and ameliorative steps. Health is one of the most important issues for the wellbeing of the human race, and reliable healthcare is crucial. Realising that a placebo is sometimes being found to be as effective as a prescription drug, and with none of the attendant side effects, raises questions all stakeholders of healthcare must answer. Stakeholders are not limited to those in medicine, science and research, but include patients, as well as others committed to the health of humanity.

The growing interest in the use of placebos in medical research and treatment, prompts the next question: Is healthcare, based on spiritual means alone for example, reliable? If, and only if, it can prove its claims practically and consistently, then it shall get the attention, even the respect, and acceptance of medicine, science and research. Is there a science of spirituality, and is it consistently practical and reliable? Mary Baker Eddy, Church founder,  author of Science and Health with key to the Scriptures and spiritual healer of repute, insists affirmatively. She recommends that her Church members should strive to prove practically that the Christianly scientific method of healing employed by Christ Jesus as indicated in Scripture, heals quickly and wholly. She goes on to say that only this proves the claims of spirituality.

It is a bold statement, but spirituality is gradually being regarded as reliable healthcare, in part at least to modern results in research using placebos, as indicated in the WHO 1998 report. It states in part ‘Until recently the health professions have largely followed a medical model, which seeks to treat patients by focusing on medicine and surgery and gives less importance to beliefs and faith’. They call this a ‘reductionist view’ and say that it is ‘no longer satisfactory’. They go on to say that patients and physicians have begun to realise the value of ‘spiritual elements’ in the healing process.

Since Professor David Henry of the Institute for Clinical Evaluation Science in Canada says ‘it is possible from manipulation of statistical data to make a drug look better than it actually is’, it is no wonder that there is an increased interest in spirituality, which, focuses rather on the metaphysical. If spiritual healthcare is found consistent, practical and provable, as Eddy says it is, then testing its reliability is
worth investigating.

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