Wednesday November 11, 1998
MDs should take heed of alternative medicine
Even if doctors don't put much stock in alternative therapies, they have
an obligation to address their patients' use of such
remedies, according to two North Carolina physicians.
``Alternative medicine and conventional medicine share some important
goals, which provide some support for a limited
professional obligation toward alternative medicine,'' they report in
the November 11th issue of The Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Patients spend about $13 billion a year on alternative medicine, and out
of respect for the patients, a physician should be ready
to address alternate remedies.
Doctors have ``an obligation to discuss treatment alternatives with
their patients and should be frank about their level of
understanding of nonconventional interventions,'' write Drs. Jeremy
Sugarman and Larry Burk of Duke University in Durham,
North Carolina.
And physicians should learn about alternate remedies so they can prevent
patients from injuring themselves, according to
Sugarman and Burk.
``This is critical since some alternative medicine therapies are known
to be harmful,'' they write. ``In addition, there may be
harmful interactions between conventional and alternative medicine
therapies.'' For example, St. John's wort acts on some parts
of the brain in a similar manner to prescription antidepressants.
Although some may feel research into alternative remedies is a waste of
time and money, doctors should ``endorse legitimate
efforts aimed at the careful evaluation of conventional and alternative
interventions so that they will be better positioned to help
guide medical decision making,'' they write.
``Armed with these data, harmful or useless practices could be abandoned
and clinicians would be better positioned to help
their patients make informed decisions to reach essential health-related
goals,'' they conclude.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association
1998;280:1623-1625.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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