Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) encompasses a range of modalities and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, which lie outside the politically dominant health system. It is understood by its users to assist in preventing or treating illness or in promoting health and wellbeing.
Because CAM is defined as being outside the dominant healthcare system, boundaries between the two systems change over time, and this creates uncertainty among consumers and health professionals. Complementary medicine is an increasing feature of healthcare practice, with recent surveys finding that approximately two-thirds of Australians regularly take a complementary medicine product. These are typically vitamin and/or herbal preparations used for health maintenance or health management.
In this unit you will be given an overview of CAM as practiced in Australia. This will include looking at who uses CAM, their motivation for doing so and the ethical and professional issues that CAM use raise in health professionals. The unit will also focus on the application of CAMs in alignment with quality use of medicines principles. The focus will be on understanding issues associated with the production and regulation of CAMs, their safety (adverse events, drug interactions) and their use in special patient groups (pregnancy, older people, and children). This will enable you to make better decisions regarding the need for CAMs, the appropriateness of CAM for your patients in light of other available treatment options, and how to educate patients regarding their application and how to monitor the outcomes.