When West meets East: is it time for headache medicine to complement 'convention' with alternative practices?

摘要

What are headache sufferers and their healthcare providers to do? There are so many aspects of diagnosis and care to consider. For the sufferer, important issues may include stress and/or anxiety related to pain and its treatment, including the expense, availability, effectiveness, tolerability, and safety of the treatment(s) provided. For both, there are communication issues, 1-way or 2-way, as between sufferers and family, friends, strangers (Internet), or healthcare providers; the last is often the least thorough. Most exchanges are well-meaning ... but good intentions do not necessarily ensure a positive result. For better and worse, there now exists in the communications media a plethora of sources for obtaining information related to the diagnosis and management of headache (and virtually every other medical disorder imaginable), including alternatives - whether conventional, complementary, or alternative - to proven healthcare-promoted therapies.