Can doctors respond to patients' increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicine?Commentary: Special study modules and complementary and alternative medicine—the Glasgow experience
On reading through the articles in the BMJ this week, I was struck by
how frequently the argument was put forward that because our patients are
turning to Complementary Medicine in increasing numbers, and apparently
want this sort of treatment, then we should provide it. This seems to be
a confusion of wants and needs and a step away from the evidence based
approach that we have been aiming for recently.
Orthodox Medicine has become a victim of its own success. Because we
can cure so many diseases and alleviate so many problems, a belief is
spreading in society that there must be a cure for all ills, and that if
the orthodox doctor cannot supply it then somewhere will be a practitioner
who can. Unfortunately, many orthodox doctors seem unable to tell their
patients that there is nothing more to be done,
apart from symptomatic care and sympathy, and fall into the trap of
providing and thereby, in the eyes of their patients and others,
validating the "alternatives".
Honesty ought to be a better policy, and where Medicine ends it
should be, but unfortunately in the hands of a statistically innumerate
media our honesty about the consequences and possible side effects of our
treatments has led to a great deal of patient mistrust and the search for
safer and more "natural" treatments, both of which
alternative medicine often claims to provide.
Perhaps Mr Blair's nostrum of "Education, Education, Education"
would, at least here, be more effective than Prince Charles'"Alternative,
Alternative, Alternative".
Rapid Response:
Needs, not wants
Dear Editor,
On reading through the articles in the BMJ this week, I was struck by
how frequently the argument was put forward that because our patients are
turning to Complementary Medicine in increasing numbers, and apparently
want this sort of treatment, then we should provide it. This seems to be
a confusion of wants and needs and a step away from the evidence based
approach that we have been aiming for recently.
Orthodox Medicine has become a victim of its own success. Because we
can cure so many diseases and alleviate so many problems, a belief is
spreading in society that there must be a cure for all ills, and that if
the orthodox doctor cannot supply it then somewhere will be a practitioner
who can. Unfortunately, many orthodox doctors seem unable to tell their
patients that there is nothing more to be done,
apart from symptomatic care and sympathy, and fall into the trap of
providing and thereby, in the eyes of their patients and others,
validating the "alternatives".
Honesty ought to be a better policy, and where Medicine ends it
should be, but unfortunately in the hands of a statistically innumerate
media our honesty about the consequences and possible side effects of our
treatments has led to a great deal of patient mistrust and the search for
safer and more "natural" treatments, both of which
alternative medicine often claims to provide.
Perhaps Mr Blair's nostrum of "Education, Education, Education"
would, at least here, be more effective than Prince Charles'"Alternative,
Alternative, Alternative".
John McGough
No competing interest.
Competing interests: No competing interests