Author Archives: skeptvet

Veterinarians and Evidence-Based Medicine

Posted on March 29, 2011 by skeptvet

? Early in 2010, the Practitioner Committee of the EBVMA conducted a survey of practicing veterinarians in the United States concerning their familiarity with the terms and concepts of evidence-based medicine and their attitudes towards it. The survey instrument was … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Causes of Death for Dogs by Breed and Age: An Important New Study

Posted on March 28, 2011 by skeptvet

It has long been recognized that there are patterns in the causes of death for our dogs. Younger dogs die from different things than older dogs, and different breeds have greater or lesser risk of dying from different causes. Understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Science-Based Veterinary Medicine | 30 Comments

A Primer on Medical Cognition

Posted on March 28, 2011 by skeptvet

One subject that I am perennially interested in is the nature of how people in general, and doctors in particular, make decisions and judgments, and how that process can go wrong. I’ve written about the pitfalls of spiraling empiricism, cognitive … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 3 Comments

A Review of Reviews of Acupuncture for Pain: Might Work, Might not; Could Kill You, Probably Won’t

Posted on March 27, 2011 by skeptvet

A new review of systematic reviews of acupuncture treatment for pain was recently published in the journal Pain. Basically, a systematic review is a study which looks at primary clinical research studies selected in a comprehensive and pre-determined manner and … Continue reading →

Posted in Acupuncture | 3 Comments

From SBM: How Popular Is Acupuncture?

Posted on March 25, 2011 by skeptvet

From Science-Based Medicine: How popular is acupuncture? One argument that often comes up when skeptics and proponents of so-called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) debate is the question of the popularity of various CAM practices. Advocates of CAM often claim … Continue reading →

Posted in Acupuncture | 7 Comments

Veterinary Arthritis Treatments

Posted on March 24, 2011 by skeptvet

Over the couple of years of producing this blog, I have written about many different subjects. Some have come up repeatedly, and because they represent common and important issues, I thought it might be useful to collect related posts I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Topic-Based Summaries | 57 Comments

Chiropractic: The More We Look, the Less We Find

Posted on March 20, 2011 by skeptvet

Edzard Ernst recently commented on two Cochrane reviews involving chiropractic, which drew my attention to these reviews. I have to admit finding the results a little surprising. In general, the total body of evidence fails to support most of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Chiropractic | 30 Comments

SkeptVet Gets Hate Mail

Posted on March 14, 2011 by skeptvet

This blog grew out of my own efforts to educate myself and my clients. I began looking into alternative medicine in veterinary school (about 14 years ago now, gasp!). Having heard about James Reston’s supposed acupuncture anesthesia in the 1970s, … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 21 Comments

Irreverent Comic Guide to Warning Signs of Quackery

Posted on March 10, 2011 by skeptvet

From comic blogger Sci-ence (sorry, can’t get the schwa character in there).

Posted in Humor | 13 Comments

Is Recommending Glucosamine for Arthritis Evidence-Based Medicine, or Wishful Thinking?

Posted on March 9, 2011 by skeptvet

In January, I discussed growing skepticism about the benefits of oral glucosamine and chondroitin as a treatment for arthritis in dogs and cats. In that post, I made reference to a short feature I wrote which appeared in the Journal … Continue reading →

Posted in Herbs and Supplements | 19 Comments