Hi Jim...
-> JC> Well, I guess that doesn't explain to my satisfaction why an
-> "alternative therapy" would work one time and not another, or why it
-> would work for one person and not another any more than "standard
-> therapies" work for some people and not others.
Beats me.  You've posed a whale of a question.  :)  I know that
mainstream medicine approaches this question, when it does approach it,
by looking for differences between the patients who responded and the
patients who didn't respond (eg, maybe all did not have exactly the
same diagnosis), differences between the treatments that were given
(though usually an attempt is made to keep treatment strictly
homogenous even in multi-hospital trials), differences in the way
patients were assessed (eg, did all the psychiatrists really use the
same definition of 'less depressed'?) and no doubt other factors that I
can't think of at the moment.
This sort of analysis of 'non-responders' does operate on the assumption
that it is possible for more than one person to have pretty much the
same disease, and that those with the same disease will benefit from the
same treatment and that therefore there is some commonsense explanation
why a treatment doesn't work on all people who are thought to have the
same disease.
I myself operate on that premise for my own health problems.  I coax the
MD's into giving me treatment that's been used in other people with
Graves' disease.  This has paid off.
I think that herbal products are trying to occupy the same niche as
standard pharmaceutical products but they tend not to have the studies
to back up their claims. Hence proponents of herbal products will
explain non-response by saying that 'everybody's different', which I see
as a cop-out due to lack of solid data to explain non-response.  
-> ...if I were a "touch therapist" and my "touching" worked for one
-> person and not for another, does that mean the two people were not
-> "unconditionally loved" the same?
Very good question.  I know very little about touch therapy. I don't
know what it's intended to achieve, so I don't know what would
constitute non-response nor how it would be explained.  I do know that
nurses are publishing medical studies about touch therapy, and nurses
are no slouches, so I'm looking forward to eventually hearing what
they've concluded.
--- PCBoard 15.2
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