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Media portrayal of conflicts of interest in herbal remedy clinical trials.

Article Excerpt
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) encompasses a wide variety of treatments, such as herbal remedies, not currently thought to be part of mainstream medicine. Our study focuses on herbal remedies, as their use is significant and increasing. (1) We ask whether media coverage of conflicts of interest in clinical trials of herbal remedies is of sufficient quality to provide the public with information to make decisions that are rational, well-informed, and low-risk. We know that the vast quantity of information available on CAM through popular media is of varying quality. (2)

In recent years, the scientific community is increasingly interested in studying herbal remedies. (3) As conflict of interest has been an issue in synthetic drug trials, especially those receiving funding from industry, we have reason to believe that this will also be true of clinical trials of herbal remedies, many of which are industry funded.

What is conflict of interest and why are we interested?

In his thoughtful and widely accepted analysis, Thompson defined conflict of interest as "a set of conditions in which professional judgement concerning a primary interest (such as a patient's welfare or validity of research) tends to be unduly influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain)." (4) He also noted that, while a secondary interest is usually not illegitimate in itself, its relative weight...

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