ABC of complementary medicine: Users and practitioners of complementary medicine

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 numbersof complementary therapists have all increased dramatically inthe past 20 years. In this chapter we analyse this phenomenonand 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 targetedpractitioners, whereas others surveyed patients and consumers.Different definitions of complementary medicine have been used $---$ someinclude only patients consulting one of five named types of complementarypractitioner, while some include up to 14 different therapiesand others include complementary medicines bought over the counter.When treatments such as hypnosis are given by conventional doctorsor within conventional health services, patients and surveys maynot register them as "complementary." However, it is possibleto make estimates from the available data, which help to chartthe development of complementary practice.

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Levels of use

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

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