Can doctors respond to patients' increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicine?  Commentary: Special study modules and complementary and alternative medicine{---}the Glasgow experience

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7279.154

BMJ 2001;322:154-158 ( 20 January )

Education and debate

Can doctors respond to patients' increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicine?

Commentary: Special study modules and complementary and alternative medicine $---$ the Glasgow experience

Can doctors respond to patients' increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicine?

Editorial by Berman

D K Owen, homoeopathic physician ^a, G Lewith, honorary senior research fellow ^a, C R Stephens, director of education ^b.

^a Winchester Homeopathic Practice, Winchester, Hants SO22 6RL, ^b School of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD

Correspondence to: D K Owen Homoeopathic Physicians Teaching Group Oxford, Oxford OX1 2NP owen@healthways.demon.co.uk

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

Patients are increasingly using complementary and alternative medicine, ¹ ² and doctors are responding to this in severalways, from being enthusiastic and interested to mystified andcritical.^3-5 Complementary and alternative medicine incorporatesseveral different approaches and methodologies,⁶ with techniquesranging from spiritual "healing" in cancer to nutritional interventionsfor premenstrual tension, acupuncture for pain relief, and manipulationfor backache. In this article we encourage you to reflect on yourunderstanding of complementary and alternative medicine in relationto your clinical practice, share some of the current initiativesin undergraduate and postgraduate familiarisation and trainingin this type of medicine, and explore the implications of education,support, anddevelopment.

The BMA's attitude to complementary and alternative medicine became much more positive between its first and second reportson the subject in 1986 and 1993.⁷ Around 39.5% of general practicepartnerships in England provide access to some form of complementarytherapy for their NHS . . . [Full text of this article]

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