About “complementary” and “alternative” medicine

There has been an unfortunate trend toward referring to unscientific treatments as “alternative” medicine and “complementary” medicine, the former meaning such practices when used alone and the latter meaning those practices used with “conventional” medicine. We reject the terms “alternative” and “complementary” medicine as misleading, and make an effort not to use them although, unfortunately, they have become so ubiquitous they are difficult to avoid. As was pointed out over ten years ago in a much-quoted editorial appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine: “It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride. There cannot be two kinds of medicine — conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonable safe and effective, it will be accepted. But assertions, speculation, and testimonials do not substitute for evidence. Alternative treatments should be subjected to scientific testing no less rigorous that that required for conventional treatments.” Unfortunately, the state of Florida allows untested, unscientific healthcare practices based on “assertions, speculation, and testimonials.”

References

M. Angell and J.P. Kassirer, “Alternative Medicine – The Risks of Untested and Unregulated Remedies,” New England Journal of Medicine 339 (1998):839-841