Complementary, alternative, proven, unproven.

摘要

In the current issue of the Journal is 'a critical review of complementary therapies in haemato-oncology'. Many surveys have long documented a high and increasing incidence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in Australia and many other countries, with private spending on such therapies greatly exceeding that on ethical pharmaceuticals. There has been also a resurgence of older CAM methods, such as laetrile and essiac that many of us had thought to have fallen completely into disrepute. There are many reasons for this high incidence, with one of the more important being some feeling of self-control and autonomy at a time when many patients have their life overtaken and managed by others. This therefore demands that the medical profession has sufficient knowledge of the available evidence supporting such use or not.