Impact and Integration Between Alternative Medicine (AM) and Conventional Medicine (CM)
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Abstract
Introduction: A growing dissatisfaction with conventional medicine (CM) has been observed, leading patients to make greater use of some form of alternative and/or complementary medicine (ACM). The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact and integration of ACM and CM by analyzing physicians’ behavior regarding ACM and the magnitude of ACM-related literature within the hegemonic medical library.
Materials and Methods: To evaluate physicians’ behavior, a meta-analysis of 17 relevant surveys on the topic was carried out. A bibliometric methodology was used to estimate the magnitude of ACM literature, classified according to the MeSH thesaurus, in the entire MEDLINE database and for the years 1985 and 1999.
Results: Out of a total of 5577 respondents, the response rate was 65.8%. In four surveys, 57% of physicians reported using some form of ACM. In thirteen surveys, 62.5% of physicians had referred patients; in seven surveys, 23% practiced some form of ACM; and in three surveys, 26.5% had received training in some form of ACM. Citations on ACM represent approximately 0.42% of the MEDLINE database, and an increase in ACM publications was observed between 1985 and 1999.
Discussion and Conclusions: According to the results of this study, there is clear evidence of a significant impact and integration of ACM within the CM system. This is reflected both in physicians’ generally positive attitudes toward these practices and in the increased number of publications on this topic cited in the MEDLINE database. Different aspects of this integration are discussed, and an agenda of topics to be examined in order to promote it is proposed.
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