Many commonly accepted clinical practices are not based on strict scientific criteria ( double-blind clinical trials ) or scientific evaluation. For instance, although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must approve new drugs based on controlled studies, many pharmaceuticals that were used before the laws were established remain in use. Drugs approved for one use are often marketed for other unapproved uses ("off-label" treatments).
Scientific Presumptions of Medicine Biomedical practitioners generally presume that their professional practice standards produce scientific, morally neutral, and objective "culture-free" treatment approaches (Gaines and Davis-Floyd, 2004). Although the practitioners see themselves as scientists, biomedicine is not consistently scientific but instead influenced by social and political conditions and ideological assumptions. Biomedicine is not consistently scientific in basing its practice on findings established by clinical trials (Hahn, 1995).
Doctors often prescribe several drugs at once, although such uses have never been tested, resulting in drug-drug interactions that kill tens of thousands of people annually. Many physicians are starting to recognize that their treatment practices are not strictly scientific, leading to the development of an evidence-based approach to clinical practice that aims to augment traditional professional assumptions with a new, critical appraisal of their practices.
Much of clinical practice is based on conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs, not on systematic evidence from controlled laboratory or clinical studies (see , "Evaluating Biomedicine and Alternative Medicine," for further discussion).
Scientific Presumptions of Medicine Biomedical practitioners generally presume that their professional practice standards produce scientific, morally neutral, and objective "culture-free" treatment approaches (Gaines and Davis-Floyd, 2004). Although the practitioners see themselves as scientists, biomedicine is not consistently scientific but instead influenced by social and political conditions and ideological assumptions. Biomedicine is not consistently scientific in basing its practice on findings established by clinical trials (Hahn, 1995).
Doctors often prescribe several drugs at once, although such uses have never been tested, resulting in drug-drug interactions that kill tens of thousands of people annually. Many physicians are starting to recognize that their treatment practices are not strictly scientific, leading to the development of an evidence-based approach to clinical practice that aims to augment traditional professional assumptions with a new, critical appraisal of their practices.
Much of clinical practice is based on conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs, not on systematic evidence from controlled laboratory or clinical studies (see , "Evaluating Biomedicine and Alternative Medicine," for further discussion).
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