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Stephen Barrett, M.D. (born 1933), is a retired American physician who resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is known as an author and editor, who describes himself as a consumer advocate. He is the founder of several controversial websites dedicated to exposing what he considers "quackery and health fraud" (including Quackwatch). Barrett is a founder, vice-president and a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF).
Biography
Barrett is a 1957 graduate of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and was a licensed physician until retiring from active practice in 1993. He is known as an author and editor, who describes himself as a consumer advocate. He is the founder of twenty-two websites dedicated to exposing what he considers quackery and health fraud (including Quackwatch, Chirobase, Dental Watch, Homeowatch, Internet Health Pilot, MLM Watch, Naturowatch, and Nutriwatch).
In addition to his websites, Barrett is a founder, vice-president and a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud, an advisor to the American Council on Science and Health, and a Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). In 1984, he received an FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery. In 1986, he was awarded honorary membership in the American Dietetic Association. From 1987 through 1989, he taught health education at The Pennsylvania State University.
Barrett is the medical editor of Prometheus Books and is a peer-review panelist for several top medical journals. He has written more than 2,000 articles and delivered more than 300 talks at colleges, universities, medical schools, and professional meetings. His 50 books include The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America and seven editions of the college textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions. One book he edited, Vitamins and Minerals: Help or Harm?, by Charles Marshall, Ph.D., won the American Medical Writers Association award for best book of 1983 for the general public and became a special publication of Consumer Reports Books. His other classics include Dubious Cancer Treatment, published by the Florida Division of the American Cancer Society; Health Schemes, Scams, and Frauds, published by Consumer Reports Books; The Vitamin Pushers: How the "Health Food" Industry Is Selling America a Bill of Goods, published by Prometheus Books; and Reader's Guide to "Alternative" Health Methods, published by the American Medical Association. His media appearances include Dateline, the Today Show, Good Morning America, ABC Prime Time, Donahue, CNN, National Public Radio, and more than 200 other radio and television talk show interviews.
Platform for activism
Barrett was the author and co-author, respectively, of two widely noticed reports in the prominent Journal of the American Medical Association. One, in 1985, exposed commercial hair analysis as worthless. The other, in 1998, exposed Therapeutic Touch as baseless.
However, his Quackwatch website is his main platform for exposing quackery and health fraud, assisted on a volunteer basis by individuals selected as scientific and technical advisors, and others.
Barrett defines quackery as "anything involving overpromotion in the field of health," and reserves the word fraud as "only for situations in which deliberate deception is involved." .
Following these definitions, he has written on quackery and health fraud concerns about acupuncture, algae-based therapies, alternative and complementary medicine, applied kinesiology, ayurvedic medicine, yeast allergies, chelation therapy, Chinese herbal medicine, chiropractic, colloidal silver and minerals, amalgam removal within dentistry, craniosacral therapy, detoxification therapies, DHEA, dietary supplements, ear candling, ergogenic aids, faith healing, genetic diagnoses, glucosamine, growth hormones, hair analysis, herbal medicine, homeopathy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, iridology, juicing, magnet therapy, nutritional therapy for emotional problems, metabolic therapy, organic food, osteopathy, pneumatic trabeculoplasty, reflexology, Therapeutic Touch, and many others.
He also maintains lists of practitioners and groups which are considered questionable and therefore he does not recommend.
Recognition and awards
Barrett's work has received numerous awards, including the Best physician-authored site, MD NetGuide, May 2003.
He has also been named as one of the outstanding skeptics of the 20th century by Skeptical Inquirer Magazine.
In 1984, he received an FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery. In 1986, he was awarded honorary membership in the American Dietetic Association. From 1987 through 1989, he taught health education at Pennsylvania State University.
Many academic and medical websites link to Quackwatch.
Criticism
Barrett is often accused by alternative practitioners of biasing his information against all forms of "alternative medicine." Paul Hartal from the now-defunct Columbia Pacific University (CPU) says:
- The orchestrated assaults of mainstream medicine against holistic health care target CPU graduates as well. For example, a psychiatrist who lost his medical license, Stephen Barrett,M.D., operates on the Internet a "Quackwatch" that slanders CPU alumni with health related degrees. "Dr." Barrett suffers from a severe case of tunnel vision. His web site strives to brainwash the public and to install blind faith in the infallible authority of allopathic medicine. "Quackwatch" arrogantly pretends to hold a monopoly over the truth.
To these criticisms Barrett responded:
- ... quackery and fraud don't involve legitimate controversy and are not balanced subjects. I don't believe it is helpful to publish "balanced" articles about unbalanced subjects. Do you think that the press should enable rapists and murderers to argue that they provide valuable services?
Barrett also disputed the charge that he "lost his medical license", explaining that he was never disciplined by a medical board, and he retired from the active practice of medicine in 1993. He sued some of those making that charge for libel and slander, but did not prevail for sundry reasons unrelated to the truth or falseness of the disputed claims.
Notes
- Google search many academic and medical sites link to Quackwatch
- http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=quackwatch
External links
- Related
- Critics