A survey was undertaken to explore attitudes to alternative medicine among 100 general practitioner trainees. A positive attitude emerged from the 86 respondents, with 18 doctors using at least one alternative method themselves and 70 wanting to train in one or more. A total of 31 trainees had referred patients for such treatments; 12 of these doctors made referrals to non-medically qualified practitioners. The most commonly used alternative treatments were hypnosis, manipulation, homoeopathy, and acupuncture.
A questionnaire was sent to 226 general practitioners in the Wellington region to determine the relationship between the general practitioner and complementary medicine. A 77% response rate was achieved. Twenty-four % of doctors had received training and 54% wanted further training in a complementary therapy; 27% currently practised at least one therapy. The majority of doctors (94%) knew of complementary practitioners in their locality; 77% indicated they referred to other medical practitioners for complementary therapies and 80% to nonmedical practitioners.
A descriptive study was performed to discover what problems patients felt it appropriate to discuss with their general practitioner, their use of alternative therapies, and any questions they wished their doctor had asked them in the past. Demographic data was recorded including Church attendance. Data was collected using an original questionnaire distributed to two groups of patients; 150 consecutive patients attending the surgery (surgery group) and 220 randomly selected from the adult age-sex register (home group). Chi-squared analysis was performed.
Western or conventional medical practices are founded on the principle of Newtonian physics; the body is viewed as a large clock whose broken parts are fixed or replaced.
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (New York, N.Y.)
We have designed a senior elective, Introduction to Alternative Medicine, to prepare our students better to practice in multicultural environments, and to expand their views of health and healing. We combined didactic lecture, films, first-hand experience with some methods, and observation of alternative practitioners in their offices/clinics. Students explored hypnosis, chiropractic, therapeutic touch, meditation, biofeedback, acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, and massage therapy.
Midwives cannot ignore the growing interest from clients who wish to use complementary therapies. However, midwives have a duty to ensure that their clients are aware of the advantages and the dangers of particular therapies. Co-operation with complementary therapists is to be encouraged, but the midwife must never delegate responsibility for her client. Managers should arrange for midwives to receive training in particularly complementary therapies, so that midwives may widen the scope of their professional practice.
Gesundheitswesen (Bundesverband Der Ärzte Des Öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany))
In the last decade, the growing interest and use of alternative healing methods among practitioners and patients has been documented in many empirical studies. The present inquiry of n = 140 undergraduate medical students at the University of Düsseldorf reveals a continually increasing knowledge of methods, self-experience as patients or lay persons, and an interest in learning one or more techniques. The highest interest in acquiring a working knowledge of a method is for acupuncture (55.7%), homoeopathy (42.1%), autogenous training (24.9%), and reflex-zonetherapies (11.4%).
