ethical prescribing

[Guest guest]

Jason and Eric are correct. This something everyone should be very

concerned about, both px and pt. IMO, it is unethical to prescribe

products:

 

1. that do not provide information about the amount of raw ingredients

they are made from

 

2. which are prescribed without regard for the doses documented in

historical texts and/or verified in modern research.

 

This will only change if pressure is put upon manufacturers to provide

what is necessary and upon practitioners to make rational prescrbing

decisions.

 

Blue Poppy is to be commended for their longstanding committment to

such documentation. However, their products do not allow for complete

individualization of Rx. So, Jason is correct that the only ethical

and rational option for this type of formulation is to use raw herbs

(admittedly a departure from my prior thoughts on this subject).

Unfortunately, the vast majority of current and potential patients

will not use raw herbs for any length of time, if at all. Thus a

catch-22 sort of bind.

 

Having said that, it is not clear that there is any advantage to

precise tailoring of formulas for each patient. Bob has pointed out

that a prominent school of modern prescribing tends to rely on

creating base formulas for diseases that are designed to address the

multiple patterns that most typically occur in such patients. Rather

than determining the single best pattern for each patient, the

practice is to use such a prepared formula for all patients with a

given disease and add single herbs or other prepared medicines to

round them out as necessary. This would seem like a sound practice

that would be amenable to patients and ethical for Px if they knew

what was in the products.

 

I suggest that the AAAOM should set ethical guidelines for px along

these lines (raw herbs or documented prepared meds only, prescribed at

rational doses). This would pressure companies to provide the

documentation in order to prevent losing business on the grounds of

ethics. Ideally, practitioners would be sanctioned for unethical

prescribing in some way, but we know that will never happen.

 

 

, " "

wrote:

>

> Eric and group,

>

>

>

> I also have been concerned about this for years, it is a MAJOR

problem. I

> have called the companies on multiple occasions and never can get a

straight

> answer. Didn't Alon at one time say that he some lists of the

ratios? Does

> anyone else? I guess this is one of the many reasons I choose Bulk

herbs.

> :-)

>

>

>

> -

>

[Guest guest]

I think we should avoid recommending sanctions for practitioners, especially

for not practicing standardized herbal medicine. Each patient is an

individual. Some require HUGE doses, while some are so sensitive they

require MINUTE doses. Sanctions should be reserved for gross malpractice,

not for deviating from the mean. The more we call for sanctions, the more

likely we will regulate ourselves into a corner.

 

- Bill Schoenbart

.............................................

Bill Schoenbart, L.Ac.

P.O. Box 8099

Santa Cruz, CA 95061

 

office phone: 831-335-3165

email: plantmed

.............................................

 

 

>>>>I suggest that the AAAOM should set ethical guidelines for px along

these lines (raw herbs or documented prepared meds only, prescribed at

rational doses). This would pressure companies to provide the

documentation in order to prevent losing business on the grounds of

ethics. Ideally, practitioners would be sanctioned for unethical

prescribing in some way, but we know that will never happen.>>>>