Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Doctors, Nurses Embrace Alternative, Complementary Medicine




So many clinicians have rethought their traditional opposition to alternative and complementary medicine that more health care personnel now acknowledge using these interventions than do people in the general U.S. population. A recently reported survey of about 14,300 physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and health care administrators nationwide found that approximately three-fourths of them use alternative or complementary options to treat their own medical conditions or as prevention strategies. Among these interventions were yoga, massage, and herbal preparations. A report of this study appears in the August issue of Health Services Research.





To read how even the tradition-bound military is beginning to incorporate alternative medicine into its treatment arsenal, see Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/13/9.full.





And to learn more about the status of research on alternative and complementary medicine in depression treatment, see Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/45/15/17.1.full.





Also, for an in-depth look at this topic see the book Complementary and Alternative Treatments in Mental Health Care, published by American Psychiatric Publishing at http://www.appi.org/SearchCenter/Pages/SearchDetail.aspx?ItemId=62202.




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