Controversy and the Truth about the Ventegodt scandal
By Paulina Kordova
Søren Ventegodt was in 2005 acknowledged, in the media and a number of scientific platforms, as the leading expert in quality of life in Denmark, due to his prominent role as the dynamic leader of the Quality-of-Life Research Center at University Hospital, Copenhagen (1).
From 2000 he was also the leader of a holistic research hospital, “Sundhedshuset”, in Teglgårdstræde 4-8, in central Copenhagen, made possible by a massive sponsorship from IMK Almene Fond, who also owned the four floor building lent to the project (1).
The holistic hospital published statistics over its treatments’ success rates, and could in a number of scientific articles document a success rate of 80% for all clinical conditions treated (1).
Ventegodt was in 2005 appointed as leader of a new Copenhagen campus of EU-university in holistic medicine “Interuniversity College Castle of Seggau, Graz”, based in Austria, teaching holistic, psychosomatic, and alternative medicine and giving the EU-masters degree “MSc in psychosocial, integrative and complementary medicine” (1).
At the same time, Ventegodt was a board member of International Society of Holistic Health, organising yearly conferences for researchers in holistic medicine worldwide; 80% of the research in clinical holistic medicine that appeared in the international journals 2000-2005 came from researchers that were members of this society.
In November 2005 Søren Ventegodt’s went from famous to infamous, due to a series of critical articles in the boulevard press Ekstra Bladet, who brought forth the voices of Søren Ventegodt’s opponents, a group of conservative psychiatrists from the University Hospital. Søren Ventegodt was accused of sexually abusing his patients.
Søren Ventegodt had prior to this been very vocal about his group’s scientific finding – that holistic medicine is far superior to pharmaceutical / conventional medicine in the treatment of most physical diseases, mental disorders, and psychological -, existential-, sexual- etc. problems.
In December 2005 the National Board of Health (Sundhedsstyrelsen) revoked Ventegodt’s medical licence based on the false claims.
Søren Ventegodt was in December 2005 turned into the police by the National Board of Health(Sundhedsstyrelsen). In February 2006 the police concluded, that Søren Ventegodt had not violated any patients, and that the accusation of sexual abuse was false.
The Danish newspaper Politiken wrote: “After almost two months of one accusation after another levelled against him, controversial therapist Søren Ventegodt got his first victory when the Copenhagen Police decided not to charge him with either sexual harassment or violence. This is after what Detective Inspector Ove Dahl calls “a very thorough investigation”. “Everyone we have spoken to says they have received good treatment – some have even been cured. The woman who reported him for violence did so on the basis of loose rumours. It’s one feather that has become five hens – we have not found anything that comes close to being a violation of the Criminal Code”, says Ove Dahl.” (5)
[Danish: Efter næsten to måneder med den ene beskyldning efter den anden rejst mod sig, fik den omstridte behandler Søren Ventegodt sin første sejr, da Københavns Politi besluttede sig for ikke at sigte ham for hverken sexchikane eller vold. Det sker efter, hvad kriminalinspektør Ove Dahl kalder »en meget grundig undersøgelse«. »Alle, vi har talt med, siger, de har fået en god behandling – nogle er endda blevet helbredt. Den kvinde, som anmeldte ham for vold, gjorde det på baggrund af løse rygter. Det er en fjer, der er blevet til fem høns – vi har ikke fundet noget, der kommer i nærheden af at være en overtrædelse af straffeloven«, siger Ove Dahl. (5) ]
But the boulevard press’s campaign did not stop. Press nicknamed Ventegodt as “Dr. Klam, doctor who abuses his patients” and published invented interviews of victims. The continued, unsupported sensational gossip started a chain reaction.
IMK Almene Fond received threats from the press, that they would expose the Fond being connected to Ventegodt. Funding of the hospital was withdrawn after that in 2006.
A court case was filed against Ventegodt’s web page by the National Board of Health(Sundhedsstyrelsen), demanding that its claim that 80% of patients were being helped, and that holistic medicine is much safer than conventional medicine, were taken down. Ventegodt won this court case, as he could prove that his claims were scientifically substantiated – i.e. legally true, and not one word on the web-page was changed.
That the police investigation ended with the conclusion that nothing wrong had happened to the patients that were treated, and that the patients felt that the treatment they received was good did not make the National Board of Health (Sundhedsstyrelsen) – which is packed with psychiatrists working close to his opponents at University Hospital – give Ventegodt his licence back. That Ventegodt never received one single complaint from any patient in all the many years he practiced as a general partitioning medical doctor, and that even the police investigating him underlined, that many patients were helped, did not change a thing.
The National Board of Health (Sundhedsstyrelsen) did not give the licence back but instead started its own investigation of Ventegodt’s holistic hospital by reviewing all medical records from all treatments that happened in the holistic hospital. The medical board asked psychiatrists at the Danish Forensic Medicine Council (Retslægerådet) if Vaginal Acupressure – the treatment in focus, which has been used in Europe all the way back to Hippocrates 400 BC – was the wrong treatment for Vulvodynia, and the answer was, that the treatment vaginal acupressure – which is the technical name for Hippocratic vaginal massage – was not an acknowledged medical treatment at all. This investigation took several years.
The acknowledged treatments for Vulvodynia were according to the National Board of Health(Sundhedsstyrelsen) in 2005 either genital injections of Botox (botulismus toxin for killing the local nerves), vaginal surgery (removing the painful tissue), or prescription of the strongest antidepressive drugs (TCAs) (sedating the patient to painlessness).
The investigation continued until 2010 when The Danish Medical Board (Sundhedsstyrelsen) finally accused Ventegodt for giving the wrong treatment to two patients, by treating them for Vulvodynia with vaginal acupressure. Ventegodt was found guilty in this at a court case in 2012, where the Court followed the Forensic Medicine Council (Retslægerådet), and he received a sentence of 30 days of suspended imprisonment.
Ventegodt asked the Danish Medical Association for help, and in 2020 Ventegodt sued the National Board of Health (Sundhedsstyrelsen) for taking his licence away for no reason, presenting scientific documentation for the safety and effectiveness of Vaginal Acupressure (8), while he could show that the above mentioned conventional methods had been proven both ineffective and very damaging to the patients.
The court now ruled that Ventegodt’s treatment of Vulvodynia as the correct treatment for Vulvodynia and similar clinical conditions, and gave Ventegodt his medical licence back.
The legal processed took 15 years. By the time Ventegodt finally had won the battle, the holistic hospital “Sundhedshuset” was long time closed, and Ventegodt’s name and standing in the Danish society was irreversibly damaged. Yet Ventegodt kept his Research Clinic for Holistic Medicine, Psychology and Sexology open at all times, and it is still today producing science about holistic mind-body medicine in the Hippocratic tradition. According to Google Scholar is Søren Ventegodt quoted 9440 times in scientific papers (giving Ventegodt a h-index of 55) and his research is downloaded by thousands of students and scholars every year.
Ventegodt gives every two years his licence back to show that he refuses to treat his patients with drugs, as most pharmaceutical drugs are ineffective and only harmful to the patients.
