R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore, was Research Director of a National Institutes of Health-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Specialized Research Center where he was in charge of conducting and analyzing randomized clinical trials involving acupuncture's effectiveness for pain relief. He has also served as a consultant to Prevention and Discover magazines.

'Inside' Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), we see embarrassingly little critical evaluation. Barker Bausell most certainly comes from the 'inside' and he is definitely critical about CAM; this makes his book unusual, ground-breaking and, I think, important...his book is highly informative, easy to read and full of entertaining wit and humour...aimed at the consumer...but too good a book to be read by the lay audience only. I warmly recommend it to healthcare professionals who work in CAM or have an interest in this area.

• 1. The Rise of Complementary and Alternative Therapies ; 2. A Brief History of Placebos ; 3. Natural Impediments to Making Valid Inferences ; 4. Impediments That Prevent Physicians and Therapists from Making Valid Inferences ; 5. Impediments That Prevent Poorly Trained Scientists from Making Valid Inferences ; 6. Why Randomized Placebo Control Groups are Necessary in CAM Research ; 7. Judging the Credibility and Plausibility of Scientific Evidence ; 8. Some Personal Research Involving Acupuncture ; 9. How We Know that the Placebo Effect Exists ; 10. A Biochemical Explanation for the Placebo Effect ; 11. What High-Quality Trials Reveal About CAM ; 12. What High-Quality Systematic Reviews Reveal About CAM ; 13. How CAM Therapies are Hypothesized to Work ; 14. Tying Up a Few Loose Ends

R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore, was Research Director of a National Institutes of Health-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Specialized Research Center where he was in charge of conducting and analyzing randomized clinical trials involving acupuncture's effectiveness for pain relief. He has also served as a consultant to Prevention and Discover magazines.

'Inside' Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), we see embarrassingly little critical evaluation. Barker Bausell most certainly comes from the 'inside' and he is definitely critical about CAM; this makes his book unusual, ground-breaking and, I think, important...his book is highly informative, easy to read and full of entertaining wit and humour...aimed at the consumer...but too good a book to be read by the lay audience only. I warmly recommend it to healthcare professionals who work in CAM or have an interest in this area.

• 1. The Rise of Complementary and Alternative Therapies ; 2. A Brief History of Placebos ; 3. Natural Impediments to Making Valid Inferences ; 4. Impediments That Prevent Physicians and Therapists from Making Valid Inferences ; 5. Impediments That Prevent Poorly Trained Scientists from Making Valid Inferences ; 6. Why Randomized Placebo Control Groups are Necessary in CAM Research ; 7. Judging the Credibility and Plausibility of Scientific Evidence ; 8. Some Personal Research Involving Acupuncture ; 9. How We Know that the Placebo Effect Exists ; 10. A Biochemical Explanation for the Placebo Effect ; 11. What High-Quality Trials Reveal About CAM ; 12. What High-Quality Systematic Reviews Reveal About CAM ; 13. How CAM Therapies are Hypothesized to Work ; 14. Tying Up a Few Loose Ends