Emilia H. Lopera Pareja (left) and Lorena Cano Orón (right).
Emilia H. Lopera Pareja ( left ) and Lorena Cano Orón ( right ) . Researchers Lorena Cano Orón (University of Valencia) and Emilia H. Lopera Pareja (Energy, Environmental and Technological Research Centre) highlight that the media have changed from a mainly favourable attitude towards alternative medicine, a series of practices deviant from integrated medicine in the western health system, to another more sceptical. The new vision publishes more articles with a critical perspective, according to a study that analyses the evolution of media opinion in Spain about these practices, from 1979 to 2018. It highlights how this scepticism has increased notably in the last three years of the study. The research analyses the position on alternative medicine in seven Spanish newspapers ( El Confidencial , Eldiario.es , El País , El Mundo , La Vanguardia , and 20 Minutos ) during a period of 40 years (1979-2018). The articles studied have shown the sudden change in attitude towards alternative medicines and, as the authors affirm, the industry itself associates this change in public opinion with a loss of profits in the sale of homeopathic products in Spain. At present, these therapies are pointed out mainly as a scam by the media and as a threat to the health of patients, since they have not demonstrated scientific evidence and professionals warn that they can even have side effects and delay the arrival of a conventional medicine treatment.
