Acupuncture | Homoeopathy | Manipulation | |
---|---|---|---|
*Yes in case of infection. | |||
†Fracture rates might be minimised by excluding high risk patients (for example, menopausal women). | |||
Evidence presented in this table is based on Ernst et al,32 Assendelft et al,35 and Ernst et al.37 | |||
Examples of serious adverse effects | Trauma, infections | Allergies | Fractures, stroke |
Fatalities reported? | Yes | No | Yes |
Frequency of adverse effects known? | No | No | No |
Complication avoidable? | No* | No | No† |
Indirect safety issues | • Potentially applicable to all complementary therapies: | ||
• Missed diagnoses | |||
• Misdiagnoses | |||
• Disregarding contraindications | |||
• Discontinuation, prevention/delay of effective therapy | |||
• Potentially hazardous diagnostic procedures |