Nearly $7 million have been raised by online crowdfunding campaigns that promise new options for the treatment of various illnesses.
A new study tracked more than a thousand medical crowdfunding efforts across four sites, including the biggest and most popular of them all — GoFundMe. It discovered that, in a lot of cases, these crowdfunded treatments offer treatments that are unsupported by scientific research and, therefore, potentially dangerous.
Dangers Of Medical Crowdfunding
The study focused on homeopathy and naturopathy for cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy for brain injury, stem cell therapy for brain and spinal cord injury, and antibiotic theraphy for Lyme Disease. The study was also only limited for crowdfunding campaigns based in the United States and Canada from 2015 to 2017.
Based on the aforementioned treatments, the researchers chose 1,059 campaigns. About 98 percent of the included campaigns were posted on GoFundMe. The rest are on YouCaring, CrowdRise, and FundRazr.
The study also found that a total of 474 campaigns were aiming to raise money and fund homeopathic or naturopathic treatments for cancer. Meanwhile, a total of 190 campaigns are for hyperbaric oxygen therapy for brain injury.
In total, all 1,059 crowdfunding efforts were able to raise $6.8 million or about 25 percent of the goal.
While naturopathic and homeopathic therapy, as well as hyberbaric oxygen therapy, have been proven to be ineffective, the other treatment options can be downright dangerous. A separate study has warned that unregulated stem cell therapy carries substantial risks that might lead to death. Meanwhile, long-term use of antibiotics without prescription from a medical practitioner might kill the body's good bacteria as well as create superbugs.
Anti-Science Sentiment
The researchers believe that the large number of medical crowdfunding online and the millions of dollars donated to all of them are effects of anti-science.
"We were surprised by the amount of money. It was considerable," stated Arthur Caplan, coauthor of the study and a professor at NYU Langone Health. "Sadly, I think part of the reason we see so much money here is that people do want to help, but we're operating in a kind of culture where people aren't listening to what the experts are telling them."
The study was published in the journal JAMA Network.
