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Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of mainstream medicine[n 1][n 2] and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources. Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery.

Alternative medicine

Alternatives to science-based medicine

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Some alternative practices are based on theories that contradict the established science of how the human body works; others appeal to the supernatural or superstitious to explain their effect or lack thereof. In others, the practice has plausibility but lacks a positive risk–benefit outcome probability. Research into alternative therapies often fails to follow proper research protocols (such as placebo-controlled trials, blind experiments and calculation of prior probability), providing invalid results. History has shown that if a method is proven to work, it eventually ceases to be alternative and becomes mainstream medicine.


Much of the perceived effect of an alternative practice arises from a belief that it will be effective, the placebo effect, or from the treated condition resolving on its own (the natural course of disease). This is further exacerbated by the tendency to turn to alternative therapies upon the failure of medicine, at which point the condition will be at its worst and most likely to spontaneously improve. In the absence of this bias, especially for diseases that are not expected to get better by themselves such as cancer or HIV infection, multiple studies have shown significantly worse outcomes if patients turn to alternative therapies. While this may be because these patients avoid effective treatment, some alternative therapies are actively harmful (e.g. cyanide poisoning from amygdalin, or the intentional ingestion of hydrogen peroxide) or actively interfere with effective treatments.


The alternative medicine sector is a highly profitable industry with a strong lobby,[1] and faces far less regulation over the use and marketing of unproven treatments. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), integrated medicine or integrative medicine (IM), and holistic medicine attempt to combine alternative practices with those of mainstream medicine. Traditional medicine practices become "alternative" when used outside their original settings and without proper scientific explanation and evidence. Alternative methods are often marketed as more "natural" or "holistic" than methods offered by medical science, that is sometimes derogatorily called "Big Pharma" by supporters of alternative medicine. Billions of dollars have been spent studying alternative medicine, with few or no positive results and many methods thoroughly disproven.

Use and regulation

Appeal

Practitioners of complementary medicine usually discuss and advise patients as to available alternative therapies. Patients often express interest in mind-body complementary therapies because they offer a non-drug approach to treating some health conditions.[138]


In addition to the social-cultural underpinnings of the popularity of alternative medicine, there are several psychological issues that are critical to its growth, notably psychological effects, such as the will to believe,[139] cognitive biases that help maintain self-esteem and promote harmonious social functioning,[139] and the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.[139]


In a 2018 interview with The BMJ, Edzard Ernst stated: "The present popularity of complementary and alternative medicine is also inviting criticism of what we are doing in mainstream medicine. It shows that we aren't fulfilling a certain need-we are not giving patients enough time, compassion, or empathy. These are things that complementary practitioners are very good at. Mainstream medicine could learn something from complementary medicine."[140]

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"Direct harm, which results in adverse patient outcome."

[181]

"Economic harm, which results in monetary loss but presents no health hazard;"

"Indirect harm, which results in a delay of appropriate treatment, or in unreasonable expectations that discourage patients and their families from accepting and dealing effectively with their medical conditions;"

Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities

Conservation medicine

Ethnomedicine

Gallbladder flush

Psychic surgery

Siddha medicine

Bivins, R. (2007). Alternative Medicine? A History. Oxford University Press.  978-0-19-921887-5.

ISBN

Board of Science and Education, (1993). Complementary Medicine: New Approaches to Good Practice. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-286166-5.

British Medical Association

Callahan, D., ed. (2004). The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Accommodating Pluralism. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.  978-1-58901-464-0.

ISBN

(1998). Complementary & Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5689-1.

Cohen, Michael H.

Committee on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public for the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, (2005). Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. ISBN 978-0-309-09270-8.

Institute of Medicine

(1997) [1993]. "Chapter 28: Unorthodox Medical Theories". In Bynum, W.F.; Porter, R.S. (eds.). Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine. Vol. 1. New York & London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-16419-1.

Gevitz, N.

(1833). The Homœopathic Medical Doctrine, or "Organon of the Healing Art". Translated by Devrient, C.H. Annotated by Stratten, S. Dublin: W.F. Wakeman.

Hahnemann, S.

Kasper, Dennis L; Fauci, Anthony S.; Hauser, Stephen L.; Longo, Dan L.; Jameson, J. Larry; Loscalzo, Joseph (2015). Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (19th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill Education.  978-0-07-180215-4.

ISBN

Kopelman, L. "The Role of Science in Assessing Conventional, Complementary, and Alternative Medicines". In , pp. 36–53.

Callahan (2004)

Mishra, Lakshmi Chandra (2004). Scientific Basis for Ayurvedic Therapies. Boca Raton: CRC Press.  978-0-8493-1366-0.

ISBN

O'Connor, Bonnie Blair (1995). . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1398-0.

Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions

Ruggie, M. (2004). Marginal to Mainstream: Alternative Medicine in America. Cambridge University Press.  978-0-521-83429-2.

ISBN

(1996). The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-53512-8.

Sagan, C.

Saks, M. (2003). Orthodox and Alternative Medicine: Politics, Professionalization and Health Care. Sage Publications.  978-1-4462-6536-9.

ISBN

Sointu, E. (2012). Theorizing Complementary and Alternative Medicines: Wellbeing, Self, Gender, Class. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.  978-0-230-30931-9.

ISBN

Taylor, Kim (2005). Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, 1945–63: a Medicine of Revolution. Needham Research Institute Studies. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon.  978-0-415-34512-5.

ISBN

Walton J. (2000) [Session 1999–2000, HL 123]. . London: The Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-10-483100-7.

Sixth Report: Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Wieland, L.S.; et al. (2011). . Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 17 (2): 50–59. PMC 3196853. PMID 21717826.

"Development and classification of an operational definition of complementary and alternative medicine for the Cochrane Collaboration"

Wujastyk, D., ed. (2003). The Roots of Ayurveda: Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings. Translated by D. Wujastyk. London and New York: . ISBN 978-0-14-044824-5.

Penguin Books

(PDF). Vol. WHO/EDM/TRM/2001.1. Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO). 2000. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. This document is not a formal publication of the WHO. The views expressed in documents by named authors are solely the responsibility of those authors.

General Guidelines for Methodologies on Research and Evaluation of Traditional Medicine

(PDF). Geneva: WHO. 2005. ISBN 978-92-4-159371-7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.

WHO Guidelines on Basic Training and Safety in Chiropractic

Bausell, R.B (2007). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531368-0.

Snake oil science: the truth about complementary and alternative medicine

Benedetti, F.; et al. (2003). "Open versus hidden medical treatments: The patient's knowledge about a therapy affects the therapy outcome". Prevention & Treatment. 6 (1). :10.1037/1522-3736.6.1.61a.

doi

(2001). "Foreword". In Diamond, J. (ed.). Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-942833-6. Reprinted in Dawkins 2003.

Dawkins, R.

Downing AM, Hunter DG (2003). . Manual Therapy. 8 (2): 117–119. doi:10.1016/S1356-689X(02)00077-2. PMID 12890440.

"Validating clinical reasoning: A question of perspective, but whose perspective?"

Eisenberg DM (July 1997). "Advising patients who seek alternative medical therapies". Annals of Internal Medicine. 127 (1): 61–69. :10.7326/0003-4819-127-1-199707010-00010. PMID 9214254. S2CID 23351104.

doi

Gunn IP (December 1998). "A critique of Michael L. Millenson's book, Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age, and its Relevance to CRNAs and Nursing". AANA Journal. 66 (6): 575–582.  0094-6354. PMID 10488264.

ISSN

Hand, W.D. (1980). "Folk Magical Medicine and Symbolism in the West". Magical Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 305–319.  978-0-520-04129-5. OCLC 6420468.

ISBN

(1976). Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-022009-4. OCLC 4134656.

Illich, I.

(2007). Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine: The New Approach to Using the Best of Natural Therapies and Conventional Medicine. Parsippany, New Jersey: Time Home Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-933405-92-6.

Mayo Clinic

Planer, F.E. (1988). (Rev. ed.). Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-0-87975-494-5. OCLC 18616238.

Superstition

Rosenfeld, A. (c. 2000). . Cleveland, Ohio: Case Western Reserve University. Archived from the original on 2006-05-09. Retrieved 2010-09-23.

"Where Do Americans Go for Healthcare?"

Snyder, Mariah; Lindquist, Ruth (May 2001). . Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. 6 (2): 1. PMID 11469921. Archived from the original on 2017-02-03. Retrieved 2017-01-18.

"Issues in Complementary Therapies: How We Got to Where We Are"

Stevens, P. Jr. (November–December 2001). . Skeptical Inquirer.

"Magical thinking in complementary and alternative medicine"

Tonelli MR (2001). "The limits of evidence-based medicine". Respiratory Care. 46 (12): 1435–1440, discussion 1440–1441.  11728302.

PMID

Trivieri, L. Jr. (2002). Anderson, J.W. (ed.). . Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 978-1-58761-141-4.

Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide

Wisneski, L.A.; et al. (2005). The scientific basis of integrative medicine. CRC Press.  978-0-8493-2081-1.

ISBN

Zalewski, Z. (1999). . CMJ. 40 (1): 8–13. PMID 9933889. Archived from the original on 2004-02-06.

"Importance of philosophy of science to the history of medical thinking"

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