Klaus Linde (born 1960 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) is a German physician and

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

researcher. He works at the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Education and career

Linde received his MD from

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

in 1990 and his PhD in epidemiology from the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

in 2002. Since 1998 he has been the deputy director of the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the Technical University of Munich.

Research

He is known for his research into the effectiveness of

St. John's wort ''Hypericum perforatum'', known as St. John's wort, is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae and the type species of the genus ''Hypericum''. Possibly a hybrid between '' H. maculatum'' and '' H. attenuatum'', the species can be found a ...

, which has found that it is as effective as

Prozac Fluoxetine, sold under the brand names Prozac and Sarafem, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorde ...

for treating

major depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introdu ...

, and that German trials of the herb tend to be more positive than do trials from other countries. He is also known for his studies of the effectiveness of

acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientifi ...

. A 2005 study by Linde, for example, found that real acupuncture was no more effective in the treatment of

migraine Migraine (, ) is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headaches. Typically, the associated headache affects one side of the head, is pulsating in nature, may be moderate to severe in intensity, and could last from a few hou ...

s than sham acupuncture, but that both were more effective than no treatment. He has also authored multiple

Cochrane review Cochrane (previously known as the Cochrane Collaboration) is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professi ...

s on the effectiveness of acupuncture with similar conclusions. He has also published several papers about the effectiveness of

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...

. These include a well-known 1997 meta-analysis which found an

odds ratio An odds ratio (OR) is a statistic that quantifies the strength of the association between two events, A and B. The odds ratio is defined as the ratio of the odds of A in the presence of B and the odds of A in the absence of B, or equivalently (due ...

of 2.45 in favor of homeopathy over placebo. However, this review also concluded that there was insufficient evidence that homeopathy was clearly effective for any single condition. A subsequent study by Linde et al. re-examined the data from his 1997 meta-analysis and found that higher quality trials of homeopathy tended to find that homeopathy was ineffective.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linde, Klaus Alternative medicine researchers Living people Academic staff of the Technical University of Munich German medical researchers Physicians from Munich 1960 births Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni