60 Minutes features "miracle" addiction treatment

[patrick767]

The article is here (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/07/60minutes/main3590535.shtml).

Quick! How much scientific evidence do you think they have for this treatment? How many double blind studies have been published?

If you answered none and zero, you win! But that didn't stop 60 Minutes from featuring the story and giving a ton of free advertising to the businessman who started the company. The story is full of the usual anecdotes. The company founder naturally claims that he didn't wait for studies and FDA approval because he wanted to save lives now. He's a saint! :p

The three page article is all positive on page 1. Midway through page 2 there's finally a critical response from someone and it's pretty good, but seems short and late.

[Foster Zygote]

I thought the broadcast report was rather critical of the Prometa hype. They certainly had Peizer squirming. They pointed out one clinic that spent quite a large sum of money on Prometa but discontinued use after it became clear that it was no more effective than any other standard treatment. They also pointed out that the yet unreleased study is highly suspect because it was conducted by the distributor and investors. I thought they did a good job of showing that they can't say it doesn't work because there is no evidence of its effectiveness, but Peizer can't say it does work because there is no evidence of its effectiveness.