Both styles of treatment emphasise the quality of the relationship between you and the practitioner. A good relationship is important for a successful outcome. Often, both conventional and complementary and alternative medicine approaches are used – this is called integrated medicine. Show
It’s hard to say for sure whether complementary and alternative therapies would work for you, as everyone responds differently to the treatments. Many of these therapies require your active participation and a certain amount of belief in the possible outcome. This is the placebo effect – the psychological hope and belief that a treatment will help. A lot of scientific research is aimed at finding out whether changes in patients’ conditions are due to natural variations in the condition, or due to what are called ‘non-specific effects’ such as a belief that the treatment will work. However, if you find that complementary therapies work for you then this may be a more importanr consideration than how or why the therapy works. There are some key points to consider if you’re thinking about using complementary and alternative medicine.
What do I need to do?
There are two main groups of complementary and alternative therapists: those who are legally registered and those who aren't: Osteopaths and chiropractors are legally recognised professionals just like doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. This means their training is regulated by a body set up by the government and by law they must register with this body in order to practise. They must be insured, and they can be struck off and prevented from practising if they’re incompetent or unethical. There are proposals for legal regulation of medical herbalists and acupuncturists, but at the time of writing these practitioners aren’t legally registered. If you consult a practitioner who is not a member of a legally registered health profession, they should:
Where can I find a therapist?For legally registered therapists, you can contact the appropriate regulatory body. For therapists not currently required to register by law, such as aromatherapists, Alexander technique teachers and massage therapists, there’s a voluntary regulatory body, the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). The CNHC can provide details of therapists registered with them. Research into complementary and alternative medicine is continuing all the time. We previously gathered research for two detailed authoritative reports on the following subjects:
In the reports the complementary and alternative treatments were scored an effectiveness rating between 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). The treatments were also categorised according to their safety. It has previously been shown that fish oils, which contain abundant amounts of omega-3 fats, are a useful complementary therapy for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We're supporting research based at Queen Mary University of London to understand how omega-3 fats in these oils exert their anti-inflammatory and healing effect. The results of this study could pave the way for new treatments in the future. We're also supporting research at the University of Southampton, looking at whether different aspects of patients' treatment experience influence treatment success, and whether this varies depending on the type of treatment. This project will focus on patients receiving complementary therapies such as acupuncture and osteopathy, as well as physiotherapy. The results will ultimately allow patients to receive therapies in a way which means they have the greatest chance of success. Compounds included in the report:
The information on compounds is based on evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Evidence was found and evaluated by experts in the fields of rheumatology, complementary medicine and nutrition, and it has also included input from a patient representative. They considered trials where the compound was compared with a conventional treatment or a placebo (a dummy pill which doesn’t contain any active ingredient). They only found evidence from RCTs for 31 compounds. Many of those studied have only been tested in a single or just a few studies, which makes it difficult to be sure whether they work or not. We’ve also only included trials in which results have been analysed on an ‘intention to treat’ basis. This means that if a participant is randomly allocated to receive ‘treatment A’, their results are analysed as if they received that treatment (even if they decided not to take the medication). This is the best method of analysis to avoid bias. If several trials have been conducted, we’ll often summarise the information from a published review, including the proportion of participants withdrawing and the main reported side-effects from individual studies. What are randomised controlled trials (RCTs)?RCTs give the best type of evidence on whether any treatment works. Participants (people taking part in trials) in RCTs are randomly allocated to one treatment group. At the end of the study, results are evaluated according to whether participants on a new treatment, for example, had a better outcome than participants on an existing treatment. RCTs of complementary medicines often use a placebo to allow the effect of treatment to be compared when the patients don’t know which treatment they received. Types of study where participants choose the treatments they take are more difficult to interpret than RCTs because participants with more serious disease might have opted for one treatment and others with milder disease another. Also, participants who choose their treatment do so because they believe it’ll be effective, which might influence how they respond to it and evaluate it. The complementary and alternative medicines assessed for the report have been given an effectiveness score of between 1 and 5 and a safety score of green, amber or red. How was effectiveness measured?Effectiveness is measured by improvements in:
Based on the evidence available from clinical trials and other supporting information, each complementary medicine has been put in one of five categories:
These classifications are based on the results of studies overall, so a medicine has been classified as effective if:
It doesn’t mean that everyone taking the medicine will improve. For medicines which we think aren’t effective, the proportion of people reporting improvement when taking these medicines was the same as people taking the placebo, for example. Sometimes we describe differences in improvement as ‘significant’. This means that we’re fairly sure that the differences between groups didn’t happen just by chance. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the differences are large. Data is interpreted in this way for conventional medicines – the evidence for conventional treatments doesn’t reach level 5 in all the conditions for which they’re prescribed. How was safety measured?We’ve also categorised all compounds according to their safety (assuming that they’re taken within the range of recommended doses – compounds which are well tolerated at the recommended doses may have serious side-effects when taken at higher doses.) We’ve classified the compounds using a traffic-light system: Green: Mainly minor and infrequent reported side-effects. Users should check possible side-effects in the product information leaflet. Amber: Commonly reported side-effects (even if they’re mainly minor symptoms) or more serious side-effects. Red: Serious reported side-effects. Users should consider carefully before deciding whether to take these medicines. Some compounds have very little information on side-effects so we’ve not been able to classify them. These compounds have been given an amber rating alongside the statement, ‘No information’. It’s important to remember that most conventional medicines have side-effects, but we generally have more information to work out what these effects are and how often they happen. How was the quality of the trial measured?The quality of RCTs can vary, which affects how reliable the results are. The trials included in the report were judged based on a scoring system called the Jadad scale, which scores from 1 (very poor quality) to 5 (very good quality). To make it easier to use, we’ve collapsed the scale into two categories:
We’ve marked trials with low quality with the symbol‡. These studies were given a lower weighting when we came to our conclusions. What is the difference between complementary therapy and alternative therapy quizlet?- Alternative medicine interventions are used instead of biomedical practices. - Complementary therapies are used in partnership with traditional biomedical practices, but differ from biomedical practices.
What is complementary and alternative therapies?Complementary and alternative medicine includes practices such as massage, acupuncture, tai chi, and drinking green tea. Integrative medicine is an approach to medical care that combines conventional medicine with CAM practices that have shown through science to be safe and effective.
What is the difference between complementary medicine and alternative medicine quizlet?Complementary medicine: "Is used together with conventional or Western biomedicine" Ex: Aromatherapy, acupuncture. Alternative medicine: Is used in place of conventional medicine" Ex: Ayurveda medicine, chiropractic.
What is the difference between conventional and complementary and alternative medicine?Complementary medicine refers to non-mainstream practices used together with conventional medicine. Alternative medicine refers to non-mainstream practices used instead of conventional medicine.
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