Centre for Policy on Ageing



Complementary therapy — complement or threat to modern medicine?
Author(s)	E K Veeramah, Susan Holmes
Journal title	Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol 120, no 1, March 2000
Pages	pp 42-46
Keywords	Alternative medicine ; Medical care ; Well being ; Quality of life ; Patients.
Annotation	Some believe that medicine has lost its holistic perspective, as a result of which, many people now seek help from "alternative" practitioners, who seem able to devote time to their patients and listen to their concerns. Such practitioners also treat the "whole person", rather than only their symptoms, a feature which seems to be valued by patients. This paper explores the universal increase in use of complementary therapies, and questions whether this truly represents dissatisfaction with "traditional" (allopathic) medicine, or rather represents an increased satisfaction with "alternative" therapies. It also investigates the use of such therapies in mainstream medicine, revealing considerable variation in attitudes towards, and use of, such therapies in current medical practice. The authors question whether complementary therapies should be seen as a threat to modern medicine, or whether their use may enhance patient well-being and quality of life. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-000518206 A
Classmark	LK3: LK: D:F:5HH: F:59: LF
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.