Complementary and Alternative Medicine: An Academic View
Donatella Lippi2005, Medical Principles and Practice
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The paper discusses the growing significance of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in contemporary healthcare. It emphasizes the necessity for medical education to adapt curricula to incorporate CAM, acknowledging patients' interest and utilization of these therapies. The analysis includes a historical context, current practices in Italy, and the integration of evidence-based principles to ensure that future healthcare professionals can critically evaluate CAM's efficacy, safety, and legal implications.
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The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) appears to be on the rise in all adult age groups, including the elderly population. Many herbal and biologic preparations offer promise, but they are largely of unproven benefit. The content(s) are unregulated by government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration, making their use problematic to recommend and guide. Use of CAM modalities in assisted living communities (ALCs) is by and large a hidden practice, but it is estimated that 5%-9% of residents ingest some kind of herbal remedy. Belief systems among residents and their families-for example, that a certain kind of tea is a cure for dementia-can be persuasive. Responsible for resident well-being, assisted living nurses are caught in the middle. Nurse licensure considers herbals as medications, yet physicians refuse to prescribe them, and nurses (or certified med techs) cannot administer them. In some states, ''alternative practitioners'' are not viewed as legal prescribers. Undaunted, residents (or their families) purchase alternative ''medicines'' that are contraindicated by their traditional medical regimen. Secreted in their room, nurses are unaware of the stash and the self-administrating practice. This article describes the state of the science regarding the efficacy and safety of CAM modalities and actions that ALC nurses might undertake to collaborate with residents to address their CAM interest and use respectfully. (Geriatr Nurs 2009;30:196-203) Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), also known as ''integrative'' medicine, refers to ''a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine.'' 1 It is suggested that the term ''complementary medicine'' speaks to modalities used in concert with conventional or traditional medicine, whereas the term ''alternative medicine'' applies when a CAM modality is used instead of conventional medicine. 2 Although some scientific evidence exists regarding certain CAM therapies, key questions with regard to their effectiveness and safety are yet to be answered through well-designed research studies. The hundreds of CAM modalities include: Mind-body interventions that use systems of thought such as meditation, prayer, yoga, tai chi, biofeedback, relaxation, and art, dance and music therapies Biologically based therapies, such as herbal preparations, botanicals, and dietary supplements Manipulative and body-based methods, such as chiropractic, therapeutic massage, and osteopathic manipulation Energy therapies such as Reiki, therapeutic touch, and bioelectromagnetic-based therapies Whole medical systems, such as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, and naturopathic medicine, which incorporate many or all of the above-noted therapies 1,2 Use of CAM is widespread. Among a nationally representative sample of more than 31,000 U.S. adults, 62% reported some use of 27 CAM modalities in the previous 12 months; at the time of the study, CAM was defined as including prayer for health reasons. 3 At least 30% of those aged 65 and older used at least 1 CAM modality compared with those younger than 65 years. 3 Most CAM use is complementary-that is, it is used in addition to mainstream interventions. Only a minority of CAM use serves as an alternative to conventional or traditional treatment. More than half of Alzheimer's disease caregivers report having tried at least 1 CAM modality to improve the memory of the dementia sufferer. 4 The most commonly used CAM modalities among older adults are chiropractic (used as much as younger adults),
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as a Toolkit for Secular Health-Care The De-differentiation of Religion and Medicine
In: Lüddeckens, Dorothea ; Schrimpf, Monika: Medicine - religion - spirituality : global perspectives on traditional, complementary, and alternative healing. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag., 2018
Searching for a 'new magical world': the contradictions of CAM and new age therapies in the West
Anthropology & Medicine, 2020
Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and New Age therapies (NAt) are increasingly widespread in the West. Although the variety of therapies they recommend is very extensive, as is the variety of beliefs and practices, there are common ideas shared across both such as the concept of holism and the notion of energy. The case studies examined in this paper, Vittorio and Sol, both suffered from severe personal problems that caused a state of general malaise. They managed to address them through the holistic world. Through their experiences, it is possible to highlight the contradictions of CAM-NAt in the West. While, on one hand, these represent a form of resistance to capitalist culture, on the other there is a risk that CAM-NAt could end up reinforcing capitalistic logic through the establishment of an ‘individualistic holism’. The only solution to this situation seems to be a focus on the exercise of personal critical faculties, and an openness to different ways of conceiving the body, the health and diseases, but without, however, being drawn into the moralistic and individualist view that sometimes accompanies these Free access up to 50 people https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DVR8WH2UWVNUHYMHWRZS/full?target=10.1080/13648470.2018.1544605
Two into One Won’t Go: Conceptual, Clinical, Ethical and Legal Impedimenta to the Convergence of CAM and Orthodox Medicine
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 2007
The convergence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a prominent feature of healthcare in western countries, but it is currently undertheorised, and its implications have been insufficiently considered. Two models of convergence are describedthe totally integrated evidence-based model (TI) and the multicultural-pluralistic model (MP). Both models are being incorporated into general medical practice. Against the background of the reasons for the increasing utilisation of CAM by the public and by general practitioners, TIconvergence is supported and MP-convergence is rejected. MP-convergence is epistemologically and clinically incoherent, and it cannot be regulated. It is also inconsistent with developments in the legal determination of the standard of care for both diagnosis/treatment and disclosure. These claims concerning MP-convergence are justified by the fact that science is not a member of the group of perspectives or worldviews which postmodernism treats as equally valid, and this is especially important for healthcare.
Complementary and alternative medicine: A buzz for medical and health care systems
Journal of Research in Pharmacy Practice, 2015
Complementary and alternative" medicine--a measure of crisis in academic medicine
Croatian medical journal, 2004
Academic medicine integrates three of the most honorable human activities: treating the ill, teaching, and research. The quality that all three share is persistent quest for truth. However, there is reluctance of academic medicine today to openly defend scientific truth by challenging the arguments and the very existence of "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM). There is no sound proof of CAM effectiveness, no hypotheses on the mechanisms of their action, nor scientific reports testing them. The fact that patients are charged for these "healing" activities makes CAM a plain fraud. With these facts in mind, the name "complementary and alternative medicine" is undeserved and misleading. CAM advocates maintain that CAM should be recognized precisely because it is widely practiced and very promising, that it has a special holistic/human approach, and works at least as a placebo in situations where medicine can do nothing more. As it seems that the ...
The Role of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine): The Different Perspectives of Patients, Oncology Professionals and CAM Practitioners
InTech eBooks, 2012
Holmes, T. 2016. A brief conceptualisation of differing research and treatment aims relied on by conventional and complementary medicine. Internet Journal of Language, Culture and Society. Iss.40, pp.50-63.
Abstract: This paper describes the contentious positional stance of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as a broad field of healing activity, in relationship to conventional biomedicine. It focuses on the question of whether CAM’s holistic, paradigmatically distinct understandings of sickness causation, and observed effects of CAM treatments, can be considered ‘valid’, in light of a widespread acceptance of biomedical explanations such as ‘germ theory’. This problem feeds a desire to establish various CAMs as safe and effective, according to scientific standards. While the recent spate of CAM-focused research activity predominantly emphasises demographic surveys describing CAM’s popularity and extent of use, as a means of asserting its cultural acceptance, fewer trials aim to establish proof for specific modalities’ healing effect. Yet clinical studies reviewing the effectiveness of CAM treatments and holistic healthcare approaches often show equivocal results. Meanwhile, the majority of CAM practitioners learn, absorb and embrace a fundamentally different belief system to that of biomedicine, regarding the nature of health and wellbeing, and issues of how healing should best be effected by a healer. Nevertheless, given a low incidence of adverse events reported in association with CAM use, and CAM’s prevalence and increased popularity, the widely touted ‘need’ to prove CAM’s safety and effect to a purportedly critical scientific audience may be perceived by some as evidence of the reach and impact of biomedicine’s boundary-keeping agenda. Using diagrammatic figures to illustrate the central concepts presented, this paper engages with differences in biomedical and CAM approaches to the grand research project that seeks to establish ‘proof’.
Book review: Anna van Wersch, Mark Forshaw and Tina Cartwright (eds). Complementary Medicine and Health Psychology. McGraw-Hill Open University Press: Maidenhead, 2009; 184pp: 9780335220120, 65 (hb); 9780335220113, 23.99 (pbk)
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An Investigation on the Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours to Complementary and Alternative Therapies among Physicians, Nurses, Patients and Patients' Relatives, 2020
Background: Complementary and alternative treatment (CAM) methods have been practiced in every country since ancient times. Although it is used in different types and shapes in each group, it is very popular in recent years. Aim: The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to CAM among physicians, nurses, patients and patients' relatives and to investigate this relationship according to positions. Method: The study designed in cross-sectional and descriptive type of study was performed in a private hospital. A personal information form was used to collect data for the study. The Pearson Chi-square test was used to examine the relationship between two or more qualitative variables. Findings: The study was conducted used totally 350 participants, including 57 of who were physicians, 114 nurses, 23 patients and 156 patients' relatives. The average age of study participants, 64.9% of whom were women and 61.4% single, was 30.34 ±9.01. Of the participants, while 53.1% said that they believed in the effectiveness of CAM methods, 61.1% said they thought complementary and alternative treatment techniques should be supported within the scope of the health insurance system. Besides, 33.7% of the participants expressed using CAM methods, and 77.4% said they thought that there was no difference between complementary and alternative medicine. Conclusions: The study found, by the position of participants, a significant difference between their usages of techniques other than medical treatment, their opinions on whether CAM poses health risks and their views on whether there is any difference between complementary and alternative medicine and their cognisance of animal-assisted therapy (p˂0.05). On the other hand, the study found no significant difference between participants' usage of CAM and age, gender, civil status, economic condition and whether the participant or a family member has a history of a chronic disease (p>0.05).
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F or the last 15 years, my multidisciplinary team and I have used the tools of science to investigate a wide range of complementary/alternative medicines (CAM), particularly issues relating to safety and efficacy. Our work has generated about 1,000 published papers and more than 30 books (www.pms.ac.uk/compmed [2007]). Here are seven preliminary conclusions arising from this effort: 1. The amount of wrong or misleading information on CAM, for example, on the Internet, in popular books, newspaper articles, and so on, is colossal and by far exceeds that in neurology, gynaecology, rheumatology, or any other medical field. The following three misconceptions are, in our experience, the most widespread: (a) Proponents often claim that CAM somehow defies scientific evaluation. Yet they are more than willing to refer to scientific tests of CAM-as long as the results are positive (e.g., Mathie, 2003). (b) Enthusiasts of CAM frequently contend that the treatments are risk-free. However, important direct and indirect risks have been identified for virtually all CAM modalities (Ernst, Pittler, Wider, & Boddy, 2006). (c) Both opponents and proponents of CAM, for different reasons, often maintain that there is no or very little scientific evidence in CAM or sections of CAM. Yet, on closer inspection, one finds at least some preliminary evidence in almost all areas of CAM (Ernst et al., 2006). 2. The clinical practice of CAM is remarkably resistant to scientific evidence. Most practitioners continue to insist that their intuition and experience are more reliable than the results of rigorous clinical trials. They are thus unwilling to abandon their treatments if the best available evidence shows they have no specific effects or might even be harmful. It is my impression that, for some practitioners and for many patients, CAM is more akin to a religion than to a form of healthcare. To them, belief counts more than facts. 3. Despite these obstacles, research into CAM has made considerable progress. I estimate that approximately 5,000 clinical trials of CAM have been published during the last decade. Their quality and results are, of course, mixed. Based on these data, it is possible to classify CAM into three categories (Ernst et al., 2006).
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To describe how pharmacists can answer the call by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies to become more involved in evaluating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and to suggest resources pharmacists can access to be better prepared to advise their patients about these therapies. Information published by the IOM in January 2005 clearly indicates that the American public considers CAM therapies increasingly to be .conventional. lifestyle choices rather than .alternative. practices. Some managed care organizations (MCOs) have offered CAM services for at least 8 years, and one of the nation.s largest MCOs created a network of CAM providers in 2003 with a 30% discount on provider fees. Pharmacists report an increase in questions regarding the use of herbal products and dietary supplements. As experts in drug-drug interactions, there is the expectation that pharmacists are a source of information for drug-herb interactions. Yet some surveys show pharmacists a...
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This article describes initiatives that have been central to the development of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research capacity in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States over the last decade. While education and service delivery are essential parts of the development of CAM, this article will focus solely on the development of research strategy. The development of CAM research has been championed by both patients and politicians, primarily so that we may better understand the popularity and apparent effectiveness of these therapies and support integration of safe and effective CAM in health care. We hope that the perspective provided by this article will inform future research policy.
The Psychosocial Aspects of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
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CAM tend to have high incomes and high levels of education. They also have medical conditions not easily treated by modern medicine such as chronic pain, poor mental health, human immunodeficiency virus infection, and cancer. The most common therapies are noninvasive (acupuncture, chiropractic, massage), however, consumption of dietary supplements has grown dramatically. Patients often use CAM in addition to modern medicine and are reluctant to discuss CAM with their physicians. Pharmacists' professional approach to science may bias them against CAM therapies. Complementary and alternative medicine use should be included in visit histories and discussed in an objective, nonjudgmental manner to encourage patient disclosure.
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