Millions of Americans are using complementary and alternative medicine and spending billions of dollars, out-of-pocket, for it. Why? Do the therapies work? Are they safe? Are any covered by insurance? How is the medical profession responding to the growing use of therapies that were only recently thought of as quackery? These are some of the many questions asked and answered in this book. It describes a transformation in the status of alternative medicine within health care. Paving the way toward legitimacy is research currently underway and funded by the National Institutes of Health. This research is proving the safety and efficacy of certain therapies and the harm or inefficacy of others. While some therapies will remain alternative to conventional medicine, others are becoming complementary, and still others are busting the boundaries and contributing to a new approach to health and healing called integrative medicine.
Table of contents:
List of tables; List of acronyms; Preface; 1. Introducing CAM and the many questions it raises; 2. Understanding CAM: the problem of knowledge and the power of words; 3. The growth of CAM: patterns of use and meaning; 4. Physicians: learning new ways; 5. Medical research: science and interpretation; 6. Investigating CAM: the devil in the details; 7. The road ahead: accommodation or integration?; Notes; Bibliography.
This book explains how research is legitimizing CAM in the eyes of physicians and facilitating its mainstreaming into health care. It explains what CAM is from the standpoint of informal knowledge, based on experience, beliefs and values, and formal knowledge based on science.
How research is legitimizing CAM in the eyes of physicians.
Table of contents:
List of tables; List of acronyms; Preface; 1. Introducing CAM and the many questions it raises; 2. Understanding CAM: the problem of knowledge and the power of words; 3. The growth of CAM: patterns of use and meaning; 4. Physicians: learning new ways; 5. Medical research: science and interpretation; 6. Investigating CAM: the devil in the details; 7. The road ahead: accommodation or integration?; Notes; Bibliography.
This book explains how research is legitimizing CAM in the eyes of physicians and facilitating its mainstreaming into health care. It explains what CAM is from the standpoint of informal knowledge, based on experience, beliefs and values, and formal knowledge based on science.
How research is legitimizing CAM in the eyes of physicians.