Court gives thumbs up to anal massage technique
A doctor who received a warning for using a controversial 'anal massage' technique to cure various aches and pains has won an appeal at Stockholm County Court.
The court revoked the warning after ruling that Sweden's Medical Responsibility Board (HSAN) had not been able to prove its claims that the doctor's treatment contradicted "scientific, tried and tested experience", newspaper Länstidningen i Östersund reports.
Several years ago, the man was warned by Sweden's Medical Responsibility Board (HSAN) on at least three occasions after using his method to treat an elderly woman's headaches and back pain.
At the time the doctor was working in the Stockholm area. The woman described his treatment as "an incredibly offensive encroachment".
HSAN examined the research literature which the doctor used to support his use of the anal massage method, but found his methods to be "dubious for a number of reasons". For one thing, it was impossible to reach any of the affected muscles using the technique.
The doctor has also run into difficulties in neighbouring Denmark and Norway.
Danish authorities said they were not aware that they had employed the same doctor who had received warnings both from HSAN and its Norwegian equivalent.
In April 2006, a council in the Nord-Tröndelag area of Norway dismissed the doctor after only two weeks when they realized he was the same man who had hit the headlines a year earlier after being fired by another local authority.
The man described his dismissal in Norway as part of a witch-hunt against him, and said that his technique was successful.
The Norwegian counterpart to HSAN issued a warning after the doctor told Swedish jokes to a group of Norwegians who were mourning a death.
The man said at the time that he considered himself misunderstood.
"I have a personality disorder, or rather a syndrome, a form of Aspergers. Just like Bill Gates or Einstein, for example," he told Aftonbladet.
"I have made it impossible for myself within the healthcare sector because I behave childishly sometimes. I am different, but cleverer."
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The court revoked the warning after ruling that Sweden's Medical Responsibility Board (HSAN) had not been able to prove its claims that the doctor's treatment contradicted "scientific, tried and tested experience", newspaper Länstidningen i Östersund reports.
Several years ago, the man was warned by Sweden's Medical Responsibility Board (HSAN) on at least three occasions after using his method to treat an elderly woman's headaches and back pain.
At the time the doctor was working in the Stockholm area. The woman described his treatment as "an incredibly offensive encroachment".
HSAN examined the research literature which the doctor used to support his use of the anal massage method, but found his methods to be "dubious for a number of reasons". For one thing, it was impossible to reach any of the affected muscles using the technique.
The doctor has also run into difficulties in neighbouring Denmark and Norway.
Danish authorities said they were not aware that they had employed the same doctor who had received warnings both from HSAN and its Norwegian equivalent.
In April 2006, a council in the Nord-Tröndelag area of Norway dismissed the doctor after only two weeks when they realized he was the same man who had hit the headlines a year earlier after being fired by another local authority.
The man described his dismissal in Norway as part of a witch-hunt against him, and said that his technique was successful.
The Norwegian counterpart to HSAN issued a warning after the doctor told Swedish jokes to a group of Norwegians who were mourning a death.
The man said at the time that he considered himself misunderstood.
"I have a personality disorder, or rather a syndrome, a form of Aspergers. Just like Bill Gates or Einstein, for example," he told Aftonbladet.
"I have made it impossible for myself within the healthcare sector because I behave childishly sometimes. I am different, but cleverer."
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