The CAM Education Program of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: an overview.

The authors provide a historical context and overview of the experience of education projects at 14 health professions schools in the United States and the American Medical Students Association that were funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in cohorts of five per year in 2000, 2001, and 2002-2003. These 15 projects were designed to incorporate CAM information into the curricula of conventional health professions schools. A longer-term goal was to accelerate the integration of CAM and conventional medicine. The overall program started in 2000 at a time when discussions about the definition, goals, and value of integrative medicine were already well underway. The efforts specific to each project, as well as the shared challenges, accomplishments, and collaborative efforts of all 15 projects, can provide guidance for the education of conventional health care providers about CAM in an integrative medicine environment. Challenging issues that must be faced include (1) the need to develop successful strategies to incorporate information about CAM into already dense health professions school curricula, (2) the need for conventional health professionals to have authoritative resources to provide their patients information about risks and benefits of CAM practices, and (3) the need to identify appropriate roles for CAM practitioners in educating conventional health professionals about CAM therapies. The authors discuss these issues and others and present some recommendations.

Insomnia, trouble sleeping, and complementary and alternative medicine: Analysis of the 2002 national health interview survey data.

BACKGROUND: Insomnia and other disorders that result in trouble sleeping are common in the United States and are often associated with chronic health conditions. Some individuals with insomnia or trouble sleeping use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies to treat their condition, but the prevalence of such use and the most common types of CAM therapies selected are not known. METHODS: Prevalence of insomnia or trouble sleeping and of CAM use for treating such conditions was examined using the 2002 National Health Interview Survey. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between insomnia or trouble sleeping, comorbid conditions, and use of CAM treatments. RESULTS: The 12-month prevalence rate of insomnia or trouble sleeping was 17.4%. There was a strong positive association between adults who reported having insomnia or trouble sleeping and adults who reported 4 of 5 common conditions: obesity (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.15; 99% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.31), hypertension (OR, 1.32; 99% CI, 1.16-1.51), congestive heart failure (OR, 2.24; 99% CI, 1.60-3.14), and anxiety or depression (OR, 5.64; 99% CI, 5.07-6.29). Of those with insomnia or trouble sleeping, 4.5% used some form of CAM therapy to treat their condition. CONCLUSIONS: According to the National Health Interview Survey analysis, over 1.6 million civilian, noninstitutionalized adult US citizens use CAM to treat insomnia or trouble sleeping. The details of this analysis will serve as a guide for future research on CAM therapies for sleep disorders.

Financial support for research training and career development in complementary and alternative medicine from the National Institutes of Health.

Research careers are a relatively new reality for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners (eg, chiropractors, naturopaths, doctors of oriental medicine, etc). Before the establishment in 1998 of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there were few funding resources available for those interested in a CAM research career and fewer still feasible paths. Now, however, NCCAM provides a broad array of research training and career development awards for those seeking a long-term career in CAM research. These awards include predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships, individual career development awards, and institutional training awards. The goal of this article is to provide information about current research training funding opportunities from NCCAM and NIH as a whole that are available to CAM practitioners in the context of the historical challenges of transitioning from a clinical career in CAM practice to a CAM research career.