© 2002 Occupational and Environmental Medicine
EDUCATION
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Edzard Ernst, Department of Complementary Medicine, School of Postgraduate Medicine and Health Sciences, 25 Victoria Park Road, Exeter EX2 4NT, UK;
E.Ernst@exeter.ac.uk
Keywords: complementary medicine; alternative medicine
Long a source of primary care in most countries, complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) has recently become a focus of interest in industrialised nations.1,2 Terms often used synonymously reflect conflicting perspectives. Proponents may prefer the terms holistic, natural, non-toxic, integrative, médecine douce (gentle medicine); opponents employ the words unproven, unscientific, fringe, non-traditional, or "Außenseitermedizin" (outsiders' medicine). Perhaps the most neutral terms are "practiques paralleles" (parallel practices), unconventional, or complementary medicine. "Alternative medicine" is more widely used in the USA (it is also the term employed by Medline), "complementary medicine" in the UK. We consider the latter most accurate but bow to the current convention of referring to CAM.
The aim of this article is to provide a short general introduction to CAM. It is written predominantly with occupational and environmental healthcare professionals in mind; its aim is to familiarise them with this increasingly important topic.
DEFINITION
Complementary therapies seem to have little in
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Occup. Environ. Med. 2002 59: 75-84.
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