[Asbostos]

I think depends on the medicine. Like fixing a bullet wound, some medicines obviously work and you don't need a study to know that (for blood pressure, insulin, severe pain, etc). But those are perhaps the ones we take for granted and don't really include when we think about the idea of medicine being bunk.

What's more suspicious is medicine that people use just because they're in a culture of taking medicine for everything. Reliefs for colds, coughs, mild pain, sore throat, psychological problems, etc. These illnesses have a strong get-better-anyway effect so it's very easy for people to believe that whatever they took cured them. Don't believe me? Go to China and you'll see people taking herb drinks for the same illnesses and having just as much faith in their effectiveness. Other popular cures include drinking warm water and "growing a pair".

[scott_s]

I'm not sure if your second paragraph is aimed at mainstream medicine, or "alternative" medicine. Mainstream medicine does not claim to have a cure for a cold. Mainstream medicine masks the symptoms so that people are less miserable while the cold runs its natural course.

What's curious with your list is that one is a disease ("cold"; the rhinovirus) while the others are symptoms ("cough, mild pain, sore throat"), and the other is an entire class ("psychological problems"). It's hard to respond to what you said because you called them all "illnesses".

[dalke]

While you wrote "I think depends on the medicine", I think it actually depends on the disease.

I think you are correct in that many people confuse palliative treatment/medicines (eg, cough drops, warm water, gargling with salt water) with curative treatment/medicines. However, in doing so I think you've changed the topic from the differences in medical vs. alt. med., as measured in patient outcomes, to the differences in how patients subjectively view the different forms of treatment.