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Complementary medicine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Complementary and alternative medicine. (Discuss) |
| Alternative medical systems - edit |
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| NCCAM classifications |
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| Complementary Medicine | |
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| This article is part of the CAM series of articles. | |
| CAM Article Index | |
Complementary medicine is treatments used in addition to the conventional therapies prescribed by a physician.[2]
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As its name suggests, complementary medicine differs from alternative medicine in that it does not offer a competing (or 'alternative') viewpoint to that based on science-based knowledge.
Complementary medicine can also be referred to as mind-body or as a psychosocial intervention. Physicians who practice complementary medicine usually discuss and advise patients as to available complementary therapies that may provide improvement in their health conditions. Patients often express interest in mind-body complementary therapies because they offer a non-drug approach to treating some health conditions.
Complementary therapies are often used in palliative care or as a way of managing chronic pain in patients. Complementary medicine is considered more acceptable in the interdisciplinary approach used in palliative care than in other areas of medicine. "From its early experiences of care for the dying, palliative care took for granted the necessity of placing patient values and lifestyle habits at the core of any design and delivery of quality care at the end of life. If the patient desired complementary therapies, and as long as such treatments provided additional support and did not endanger the patient, they were considered acceptable."[4]
Medicine is ever changing, and complementary medicine can also be viewed as a form of competition. Many complementary medicine therapies are considered holistic, which means that they address the whole person. Some patients are demanding a more holistic approach to their health care from their physicians. And, in response to the patient empowerment movement and other demands for a different type of service more and more physicians are starting to offer their patients additional complementary services. These innovative physicians are using complementary medicine as a way to compete with mainstream conventional medicine doctors who do not.
As physicians are using complementary medicine in their daily medical practice, calling what they do as being alternative and outside of medicine is simply no longer correct. The new practice of complementary medicine shields physicians from disciplinary action in many different jurisdictions for unprofessional conduct or failure to practice medicine in an acceptable manner as long as board specific practice requirements are satisfied and the therapies utilized do not present "a safety risk for the patient that is unreasonably greater that the conventional treatment for the patient's medical condition." (See [3] the state of Texas, as an example.)
- Zollman C, Vickers A. (1999). "ABC of complementary medicine. The manipulative therapies: osteopathy and chiropractic.". Brit Med J 319: 693-696. PMID 10541511.
- Definition of Complementary medicine, MedicineNet.com
- Tex. Admin. Code ยง 200.3. Complementary and Integrative Medicine: An Update for Texas Physicians
- Allan Kellehear, Complementary medicine: is it more acceptable in palliative care practice? MJA 2003; 179 (6 Suppl): S46-S48 [online]
- Bausell, R. Barker (2007), Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-531368-0