Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies can be defined as medical treatments that are not currently used as standard medical treatments in conventional Western medicine. CAM therapies can be categorized in five major groups: alternative medical systems like naturopathy and acupuncture, mind-body interventions like meditation and hypnotherapy, manipulative and body-based methods like massage therapy and chiropractic, energy therapies like reiki and polarity therapy, and biologically based treatments like herbal remedies and chelation therapy. These types of treatments are not taught widely in United States medical schools and are generally unavailable at U.S. hospitals. However, surveys dating back to 1990 show that the use of CAM therapies has become increasingly more widespread in the United States. As such, the market for such treatments has grown exponentially. For example, a 2001 survey from the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation showed that nearly 50% of Americans were using CAM therapies with an estimated 600 million visits to CAM practitioners per year and an estimated market of $30 billion annually. Yet despite the increase in the usage of and expenditure on CAM therapies, many CAM users do not talk to their physicians about CAM treatments. The main reasons given for this are that patients are not aware that they should discuss CAM with their physicians and their physicians do not ask them about CAM therapies. Thus, it is increasingly important for practitioners to gain familiarity with various forms of CAM and to specifically elicit and document a history of CAM usage from patients.