BMJ 1999;319:836-838 ( 25 September )

Clinical review

ABC of complementary medicine

Users and practitioners of complementary medicine

Catherine Zollman,  Andrew Vickers. 

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Complementary medicine seems to be becoming more popular in Britain. Media coverage, specialist publications, and numbers of complementary therapists have all increased dramatically in the past 20 years. In this chapter we analyse this phenomenon and review available evidence about the use of complementary medicine.

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	Surveys of use

Several surveys, of varying quality, have been undertaken, but interpretation is not straightforward. Some studies targeted practitioners, whereas others surveyed patients and consumers. Different definitions of complementary medicine have been usedsome include only patients consulting one of five named types of complementary practitioner, while some include up to 14 different therapies and others include complementary medicines bought over the counter. When treatments such as hypnosis are given by conventional doctors or within conventional health services, patients and surveys may not register them as "complementary." However, it is possible to make estimates from the available data, which help to chart the development of complementary practice.

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	Levels of use

How many . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Complementary Healthcare Products widely used in NZ.

Ron Law
bmj.com, 5 Nov 1999 [Full text]