Alternative medical therapies

ABSTRACT

Alternative, complementary, unconventional, non-allopathic, non-Western medical therapies, to list some of the many synonyms in current use, have become increasingly popular in all Western countries, including Europe, North America and the Caribbean. They include an extremely large number of practices, from those of long standing European origin (eg homeopathy and hypnosis) to many Eastern practices (eg acupunture), from those of long tradition in every culture (herbal medicine) to the exotic, "new age" therapies; from those based on single theories with little or no scientific rationale to those with increasing evidence of some efficacy (acupunture and chiropractic); from those very much on the fringe to those incorporating valid nutritional, physiological or psychological principles. Much of the popularity of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) stems from increasing dissatisfaction with modern, scientific, conventional, allopathic or Western medicine. Reasons for this include increasingly high costs of medical technology, a worldwide interest in "natural" remedies and the intensive hype and advertising in the media.(AU)