View source for Medicine:Terminology of alternative medicine

{{Alternative medical systems|general}}
'''Alternative medicine''' describes any practice which aims to achieve the healing effects of [[Medicine:Medicine|medicine]], but which lacks [[Medicine:Biological plausibility|biological plausibility]] and is [[Philosophy:Argument from ignorance|untested]] or [[Unsolved:Pseudoscience|untestable]].<!--Definition is imported from the main Alternative medicine article; see that article for references.--> '''Complementary medicine''' ('''CM'''), '''complementary and alternative medicine''' ('''CAM'''), '''integrated medicine''' or '''integrative medicine''' ('''IM'''), and '''holistic medicine''' are among many [[Social:Rebranding|rebranding]]s of the same phenomenon.

== Terms for alternative medicine ==

The terms ''alternative medicine'', ''complementary medicine'', ''integrative medicine,'' ''holistic medicine'', ''natural medicine'', ''unorthodox medicine'', ''fringe medicine'', ''unconventional medicine'', and ''new age medicine'' are used interchangeably as having the same meaning and are almost synonymous in most contexts.<ref name="Shapiro 08">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib_IbOu_d9gC&pg=PA1|title=Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All| vauthors = Shapiro R |date=2010-09-30 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781409059165}}</ref><ref name="Bombardieri2000" /><ref name="Shuval2012" /><ref name="Freedman2011" />

[[File:Marcia.angell.jpg|thumb|Marcia Angell: "There cannot be two kinds of medicine&nbsp;– conventional and alternative".]]

The meaning of the term "alternative" in the expression "alternative medicine", is not that it is an effective alternative to medical science, although some alternative medicine promoters may use the loose terminology to give the appearance of effectiveness.<ref name="ATRAMM" /><ref name="Kolata">{{Citation| vauthors = Kolata G |title=On Fringes of Health Care, Untested Therapies Thrive|date=June 17, 1996|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/17/us/on-fringes-of-health-care-untested-therapies-thrive.html|work={{wipe|The New York Times}}|access-date=December 22, 2015}}</ref> Loose terminology may also be used to suggest meaning that a dichotomy exists when it does not, e.g., the use of the expressions "Western medicine" and "Eastern medicine" to suggest that the difference is a cultural difference between the Asiatic east and the European west, rather than that the difference is between [[Medicine:Evidence-based medicine|evidence-based medicine]] and treatments that do not work.<ref name="ATRAMM" />

=== Complementary or integrative medicine {{anchor|Complementary medicine|Integrative medicine|Integrated medicine}} ===
'''Complementary medicine''' ('''CM''') or '''integrative medicine''' ('''IM''') is when alternative medicine is used together with functional medical treatment, in a [[Philosophy:Belief|belief]] that it improves the effect of treatments.{{refn|group=n|name=FinalReport|The ''Final Report'' (2002) of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy states: "The Commissioners believe and have repeatedly stated in this Report that our response should be to hold all systems of health and healing, including conventional and CAM, to the same rigorous standards of good science and health services research. Although the Commissioners support the provision of the most accurate information about the state of the science of all CAM modalities, they believe that it is premature to advocate the wide implementation and reimbursement of CAM modalities that are yet unproven."<ref name="whccamp.hhs.gov"/>}}<ref name="NSF_2002" /><ref name="Ernst_1995" /><ref name="Joyce_1994" /><ref name="BMJ_May" /> For example, [[Unsolved:Acupuncture|acupuncture]] (piercing the body with needles to influence the flow of a supernatural energy) might be believed to increase the effectiveness or "complement" science-based medicine when used at the same time.<ref name="NCI_PDQ_CAM" /><ref name="Borkan2012" /><ref name="whatiscam" /> Instead, significant [[Medicine:Drug interaction|drug interaction]]s caused by alternative therapies may make treatments less effective, notably in [[Medicine:Treatment of cancer|cancer therapy]].<ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite journal | vauthors = Zeller T, Muenstedt K, Stoll C, Schweder J, Senf B, Ruckhaeberle E, Becker S, Serve H, Huebner J | display-authors = 6 | title = Potential interactions of complementary and alternative medicine with cancer therapy in outpatients with gynecological cancer in a comprehensive cancer center | journal = Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology | volume = 139 | issue = 3 | pages = 357–365 | date = March 2013 | pmid = 23099993 | doi = 10.1007/s00432-012-1336-6 | s2cid = 29598970 }}</ref><ref name="Arye13">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ben-Arye E, Polliack A, Schiff E, Tadmor T, Samuels N | title = Advising patients on the use of non-herbal nutritional supplements during cancer therapy: a need for doctor-patient communication | journal = Journal of Pain and Symptom Management | volume = 46 | issue = 6 | pages = 887–896 | date = December 2013 | pmid = 23707384 | doi = 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.02.010 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Integrative medicine has been described as an attempt to bring pseudoscience into academic science-based medicine.<ref name="Gorski2010" /> Due to its many names, the field has been criticized by writer Rose Shapiro for what she describes as intense [[Social:Rebranding|rebranding]] of what are essentially the same practices.<ref name="Shapiro 08" />

'''CAM''' is an abbreviation of the phrase ''complementary and alternative medicine''.<ref name="ernstinterview" /><ref name="CassilethDeng2004" /> The 2019 [[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]] (WHO) Global Report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine states that the terms complementary and alternative medicine "refer to a broad set of health care practices that are not part of that country's own traditional or conventional medicine and are not fully integrated into the dominant health care system. They are used interchangeably with traditional medicine in some countries."<ref name="WHO_2019">{{Cite journal |date=2019 |title=WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019 |url=https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/312342/9789241515436-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=World Health Organization |location=Geneva |isbn=978-92-4-151543-6}}</ref>

===Other terms===
'''Traditional medicine''' comprises medical aspects of [[Social:Traditional knowledge|traditional knowledge]] that developed over generations within the [[Philosophy:Folk belief|folk beliefs]] of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the era of modern medicine. The 2019 WHO study defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skill and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness."<ref name="WHO_2019" />

'''Holistic medicine''' is another rebranding of alternative medicine. In this case, the words ''balance'' and ''holism'' are often used alongside ''complementary'' or ''integrative'', claiming to take into account a "whole" person, in contrast to the supposed reductionism of medicine.

== Definitions of alternative medicine ==

Alternative medicine is defined loosely as a set of products, practices, and theories that are believed or perceived by their users to have the healing effects of [[Medicine:Medicine|medicine]],{{refn|name=NSFquote|group=n|"[A]lternative medicine refers to all treatments that have not been proven effective using scientific methods."<ref name=NSF_2002/>}}{{refn|"Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a broad domain of resources that encompasses health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period. CAM includes such resources perceived by their users as associated with positive health outcomes. Boundaries within CAM and between the CAM domain and the domain of the dominant system are not always sharp or fixed."{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|p=19}}|name=IOMquote|group=n}} but whose [[Chemistry:Efficacy|effectiveness]] has not been established using [[Scientific method|scientific method]]s,{{refn|name=NSFquote|group=n}}{{refn|name=Angellquote|group=n|"It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride. There cannot be two kinds of medicine&nbsp;– 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... speculation, and testimonials do not substitute for evidence."<ref name=Angell1998/>}}<ref name="ATRAMM" /><ref name="Hines_Sampson_Coulter_Sagan" /><ref name="IGPIAMAYP" /><ref name="NP" /> or whose theory and practice is not part of [[Medicine:Biomedicine|biomedicine]],{{refn|group=n|name=IOMquote}}{{refn|group=n|name=Harrisonquote |"The phrase complementary and alternative medicine is used to describe a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that have historic origins outside mainstream medicine. Most of these practices are used together with conventional therapies and therefore have been called complementary to distinguish them from alternative practices, those used as a substitute for standard care. ... Until a decade ago or so, "complementary and alternative medicine" could be defined as practices that are neither taught in medical schools nor reimbursed, but this definition is no longer workable, since medical students increasingly seek and receive some instruction about complementary health practices, and some practices are reimbursed by third-party payers. Another definition, practices that lack an evidence base, is also not useful, since there is a growing body of research on some of these modalities, and some aspects of standard care do not have a strong evidence base."{{sfn|Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine|2015|loc=chpt. 14-E|p=1}}}}{{refn |name=WebMD2014quote |group=n |"An alternative medical system is a set of practices based on a philosophy different from Western biomedicine."<ref name=WebMD2014/>}}{{refn |group=n |name=NCCIH2quote |"CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine."<ref name=NCCIH2/>}} or whose theories or practices are directly contradicted by [[Scientific evidence|scientific evidence]] or [[Science|scientific principles]] used in biomedicine.<ref name="ATRAMM" /><ref name="Hines_Sampson_Coulter_Sagan" /><ref name="AMCER" /> "Biomedicine" or "medicine" is that part of medical science that applies principles of [[Biology:Biology|biology]], [[Biology:Physiology|physiology]], [[Biology:Molecular biology|molecular biology]], [[Physics:Biophysics|biophysics]], and other [[Natural science|natural science]]s to clinical practice, using scientific methods to establish the effectiveness of that practice. Unlike medicine,{{refn|name=Harrisonquote|group=n}} an alternative product or practice does not originate from using scientific methods, but may instead be based on hearsay, [[Religion:Religion|religion]], tradition, [[Unsolved:Superstition|superstition]], belief in [[Philosophy:Supernatural|supernatural]] energies, [[Unsolved:Pseudoscience|pseudoscience]], [[Fallacy|errors in reasoning]], [[Social:Propaganda|propaganda]], [[Finance:Fraud|fraud]], or other unscientific sources.{{refn|name=Angellquote|group=n}}<ref name="ATRAMM" /><ref name="NSF_2002" /><ref name="Hines_Sampson_Coulter_Sagan" /><ref name="AMCER" />

=== Challenges in defining alternative medicine===

Terminology has shifted over time, reflecting the preferred branding of practitioners.<ref name="SBM-brand">[https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/integrative-medicine-a-brand-not-a-specialty/ "Integrative medicine": A brand, not a specialty]. ''Science Based Medicine''</ref> For example, the United States National Institutes of Health department studying alternative medicine, currently named the [[Organization:National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health|National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health]] (NCCIH), was established as the ''Office of Alternative Medicine'' (OAM) and was renamed the ''National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine'' (NCCAM) before obtaining its current name. Therapies are often framed as "natural" or "holistic", in apparent opposition to conventional medicine which is "artificial" and "narrow in scope", statements which are intentionally misleading.<ref name="ConsumerHealth9th"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:136:0085:0090:en:PDF|title=Directive 2004/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council|date=2004-04-30|website=Official Journal of the European Union}}</ref>

Prominent members of the science<ref name="Offit2013" /><ref name="Dawkins2003a" /> and biomedical science community<ref name="Angell1998" /> say that it is not meaningful to define an alternative medicine that is separate from a conventional medicine, because the expressions "conventional medicine", "alternative medicine", "complementary medicine", "integrative medicine",  and "holistic medicine" do not refer to any medicine at all.<ref name="Angell1998" /><ref name="Offit2013" /><ref name="Dawkins2003a" /><ref name="Fontanarosa1998" /> Others say that alternative medicine cannot be precisely defined because of the diversity of theories and practices it includes, and because the boundaries between alternative and conventional medicine overlap, are porous, and change.{{sfn|Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine|2015|loc=chpt. 14-E|p=1}}{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|pp=14–20}} The systems and practices it refers to are diffuse, and its boundaries poorly defined.<ref name="CAM_Sointu_Nissen_Eisenberg" /><ref name = "Ruggie_2004">{{cite book | vauthors = Ruggie M | chapter = Chapter 2: Understanding CAM: The Problem of Knowledge and the Power of Words |title=Marginal to Mainstream: Alternative Medicine in America |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-0-521-83429-2 | page =[https://books.google.com/books?id=ViDwi7s2VvMC&pg=PA20 20] | quote = By the mid-1990s, the notion that some alternative therapies could be complementary to conventional medicine began to change the status of...alternative medicine. The 21st century is witnessing yet another terminological innovation, in which CAM and conventional medicine are becoming integrative. }}</ref> Healthcare practices categorized as alternative may differ in their historical origin, theoretical basis, [[Medicine:Medical diagnosis|diagnostic technique]], [[Chemistry:Therapy|therapeutic practice]] and in their relationship to the medical mainstream.<ref name = "Sointu_2012">{{cite book | vauthors = Sointu E |title=Theorizing Complementary and Alternative Medicines: Wellbeing, Self, Gender, Class |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire |isbn=978-0-230-30931-9 |page =[https://books.google.com/books?id=XC2UUP36bjAC&pg=PA13 13] }}</ref> Some alternative therapies, such as [[Medicine:Traditional Chinese medicine|traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)]] and [[Philosophy:Ayurveda|Ayurveda]], have antique origins in East or South Asia and are entirely alternative medical systems;<ref name = "Sointu_2012" />{{rp|13}} {{harvnb |IOM Report |2005|p=[http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=18 18]}}.</ref> others, such as homeopathy and chiropractic, have origins in Europe or the United States and emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.{{sfn |Gevitz |1997 |pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIqk31BXpksC&pg=PA603 603–33]}} Some, such as [[Unsolved:Osteopathy|osteopathy]] and chiropractic, employ manipulative physical methods of treatment; others, such as [[Philosophy:Meditation|meditation]] and [[Unsolved:Prayer|prayer]], are based on mind-body interventions.{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|p=[http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=18 18]}} Under a definition of alternative medicine as "non-mainstream", treatments considered alternative in one location may be considered conventional in another.<ref name="Nissen2013" />

Critics say the expression is deceptive because it implies there is an effective alternative to science-based medicine, and that ''complementary'' is deceptive because it implies that the treatment increases the effectiveness of (complements) science-based medicine, while alternative medicines that have been tested nearly always have no measurable positive effect compared to a [[Medicine:Placebo|placebo]].<ref name="ATRAMM" /><ref name="Gorski2010" /><ref name="Skep_Dic_comp_med" /><ref name="Novella2010" /> It has been said that "there is really no such thing as alternative medicine, just medicine that works and medicine that doesn't",<ref name=Dawkins2003a/> and that the very idea of "alternative" treatments is [[Philosophy:Paradox|paradox]]ical because any treatment proven to work is by definition "medicine."<ref name=Helmuth/>

===Different types of definitions===
Some definitions seek to specify alternative medicine in terms of its social and political marginality to mainstream healthcare.<ref name="Saks1992" /> This can refer to the lack of support that alternative therapies receive from medical scientists regarding access to research funding, sympathetic coverage in the medical press, or inclusion in the standard medical curriculum.<ref name="Saks1992" /> In 1993, the British Medical Association (BMA) stated that it{{refn|group=n|The BMA used the term non-conventional medicine instead of alternative medicine.<ref name=BMA_1993_1st/>}} referred to ''"...those forms of treatment which are not widely used by the conventional healthcare professions, and the skills of which are not taught as part of the undergraduate curriculum of conventional medical and paramedical healthcare courses"''.<ref name="BMA_1993_1st" /> In a US context, a definition coined in 1993 by the Harvard-based physician David M. Eisenberg<ref name="Artus2007" /><ref name="Eisenberg_Bio" /> described alternative medicine as ''"interventions neither taught widely in medical schools nor generally available in US hospitals"''.<ref>{{harvnb|Eisenberg et al.|1993}}. {{harvnb|Eisenberg et al.|1998}}.</ref> In a definition published in 2000 by the [[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]] (WHO), CAM was defined as a broad set of health care practices that are not part of that country's own tradition and are not integrated into the dominant health care system.<ref name="WHO_Trad_Med_Defs" />{{sfn|WHO|2000}} A widely used{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|p=[http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=19 19]}} descriptive definition devised by the US NCCIH calls it ''"a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine"''.<ref name="NCCIH1" /> However, these descriptive definitions are inadequate in the present-day when some conventional doctors offer alternative medical treatments and introductory courses or modules can be offered as part of standard undergraduate medical training;<ref name="HOL_Kopelman_Wieland_Astin_Pelletier" /> alternative medicine is taught in more than half of US medical schools and US health insurers are increasingly willing to provide reimbursement for alternative therapies.{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|pp=[http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=17 17], [http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=196 196–252]}} In 1999, 7.7% of US hospitals reported using some form of alternative therapy; this proportion had risen to 37.7% by 2008.<ref name="Salomonsen_AHA" /> A 15-year systematic review published in 2022 on the global acceptance and use of CAM among medical specialists found the overall acceptance of CAM at 52% and the overall use at 45%.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Phutrakool P, Pongpirul K | title = Acceptance and use of complementary and alternative medicine among medical specialists: a 15-year systematic review and data synthesis | journal = Systematic Reviews | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 10 | date = January 2022 | pmid = 35027078 | pmc = 8759198 | doi = 10.1186/s13643-021-01882-4 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

An expert panel at a conference hosted in 1995 by the US Office for Alternative Medicine (OAM),<ref name="Wieland2011" />{{refn|group=n|The Office for Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, was renamed NCCAM in 1998.<ref name=FDA_regulatory/>}} devised a [[Theoretical definition|theoretical definition]]<ref name="Wieland2011" /> of alternative medicine as "a broad domain of healing resources&nbsp;... other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period".<ref name="CAM_RMC1997" /> This definition has been widely adopted,<ref name="Wieland2011" /> and has been cited by the UK Department of Health,<ref name="UKDoH_CAM" /> attributed as the definition used by the Cochrane Collaboration,<ref name="ZollChanCoulRobeAdamArtu" /> and, with some modification,{{dubious|date=June 2015}} was preferred in the 2005 consensus report of the US Institute of Medicine.{{refn|group=n|name=IOMquote}} This definition, an expansion of Eisenberg's 1993 formulation, is silent regarding questions of the medical effectiveness of alternative therapies.<ref name="Hufford2004" /> Its proponents hold that it thus avoids [[Relativism|relativism]] about differing forms of medical knowledge and, while it is an essentially political definition, this should not imply that the dominance of mainstream [[Medicine:Medicine|medicine]] is solely due to political forces.<ref name="Hufford2004" /> According to this definition, alternative and [[Medicine:Medicine|mainstream medicine]] can only be differentiated with reference to what is "intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society of culture".<ref name="Kopelman2004" /> However, there is neither a reliable method to distinguish between cultures and subcultures, nor to attribute them as dominant or subordinate, nor any accepted criteria to determine the dominance of a cultural entity.<ref name="Kopelman2004" /> If the culture of a politically dominant healthcare system is held to be equivalent to the perspectives of those charged with the medical management of leading healthcare institutions and programs, the definition fails to recognize the potential for division either within such an elite or between a healthcare elite and the wider population.<ref name="Kopelman2004" />

Evidence-based definitions distinguish alternative medicine based on its provision of therapies that are unproven, unvalidated, or ineffective and support of theories with no recognized scientific basis.{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|p=[http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=17 17]}} These definitions characterize practices as constituting alternative medicine when, used independently or in place of [[Medicine:Evidence-based medicine|evidence-based medicine]], they are put forward as having the healing effects of medicine, but are not based on [[Philosophy:Evidence|evidence]] gathered with the [[Scientific method|scientific method]].<ref name="NSF_2002" /><ref name="Angell1998" /><ref name="NCI_PDQ_CAM" /><ref name="Borkan2012" /><ref name="NCCIH1" /><ref name="Kong2005" /> Exemplifying this perspective, a 1998 editorial co-authored by Marcia Angell, a former editor of ''The New England Journal of Medicine'', argued that:

{{quote|It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride. There cannot be two kinds of medicine&nbsp;– 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 reasonably 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 than that required for conventional treatments.<ref name="Angell1998" />}}

This line of division has been subject to criticism on the grounds that not all forms of standard medical practice have adequately demonstrated evidence of benefit,{{refn|name=Harrisonquote|group=n}}<ref name="Ezzo2001" />{{sfn|IOM Report|2005|pp=17–18}} and that most conventional therapies, if proven to be ineffective, would not later be classified as alternative.<ref name="Wieland2011" /> Another definition is that alternative medicine refers to a diverse range of related and unrelated products, practices, and theories ranging from biologically plausible practices and products and practices with some evidence, to practices and theories that are directly contradicted by basic science or clear evidence, and products that have been conclusively proven to be ineffective or even toxic and harmful.{{refn|group=n|name=IOMquote}}<ref name="CAM_Sointu_Nissen_Eisenberg" /><ref name="DaguptaHStabler2011" /><ref name=ATRAMM/>

Proponents of an [[Medicine:Evidence-based medicine|evidence-base for medicine]]{{refn|group=n|"Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients";<ref name=Sackett1996/> "Evidence based medicine, whose philosophical origins extend back to mid-19th century Paris and earlier, remains a hot topic for clinicians, public health practitioners, purchasers, planners, and the public. British centres for evidence based practice have been established or planned in adult medicine, child health, surgery, pathology, pharmacotherapy, nursing, general practice, and dentistry; the Cochrane Collaboration and Britain's Centre for Review and Dissemination in York are providing systematic reviews of the effects of health care".<ref name=Sackett1996/>}}<ref name="Nuffield_Trust" /><ref name="Belsey2009" /><ref name="Nuffield2" /><ref name="Bardsley2011" /> such as the Cochrane Collaboration take a position that ''all'' systematic reviews of treatments, whether "mainstream" or "alternative", ought to be held to the current standards of scientific method.<ref name="UM_CAM_Field" /> In 2011, the Cochrane Collaboration proposed that indicators of a therapy's level of acceptance include government licensing of practitioners, coverage by health insurance, statements of approval by government agencies, and recommendation as part of a practice guideline; and that if something is currently a standard, accepted therapy, then it is not likely to be widely considered as alternative.<ref name="Wieland2011" />

====Australia====
The public information website maintained by the [[Organization:National Health and Medical Research Council|National Health and Medical Research Council]] (NHMRC) of the Commonwealth of Australia uses the acronym "CAM" for a wide range of health care practices, therapies, procedures and devices not within the domain of conventional medicine. In the Australian context this is stated to include acupuncture; aromatherapy; chiropractic; homeopathy; massage; meditation and relaxation therapies; naturopathy; osteopathy; reflexology, traditional Chinese medicine; and the use of vitamin supplements.<ref name="NHMRC_CAM" />

====Denmark====
The Danish National Board of Health's Council for Alternative Medicine (Sundhedsstyrelsens Råd for Alternativ Behandling (SRAB)), an independent institution under the National Board of Health (Danish: ''Sundhedsstyrelsen''), uses the term "alternative medicine" for:
* Treatments performed by therapists that are not authorized healthcare professionals.
* Treatments performed by authorized healthcare professionals, but those based on methods otherwise used mainly outside the healthcare system. People without a healthcare authorisation are [also] allowed to perform the treatments.<ref name="VIFAB_definition" />

==Other terms==
===Allopathic medicine===
{{main|Medicine:Allopathic medicine}}
{{anchor|Allopathic medicine|Allopathy}}
'''Allopathic medicine''' or '''allopathy''' is a pejorative term used by proponents of [[Medicine:Alternative medicine|alternative medicine]] to refer to modern scientific systems of medicine,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Weatherall MW | title = Making medicine scientific: empiricism, rationality, and quackery in mid-Victorian Britain | journal = Social History of Medicine | volume = 9 | issue = 2 | pages = 175–194 | date = August 1996 | pmid = 11613446 | doi = 10.1093/shm/9.2.175 }}</ref> such as the use of pharmacologically active [[Medicine:Active ingredient|agents]] or [[Medicine:Surgery|physical interventions]] to treat or suppress symptoms or [[Medicine:Pathophysiology|pathophysiologic]] processes of diseases or conditions.<ref name="Roy">{{cite journal | vauthors = Roy V | title = Time to sensitize medical graduates to the Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy | journal = Indian Journal of Pharmacology | volume = 47 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–3 | date = 2015 | pmid = 25821302 | pmc = 4375800 | doi = 10.4103/0253-7613.150301 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name=FREEDICT>{{cite web|url=http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/allopathy |website=The Free Dictionary |publisher=Farlex |title=Definition {{ndash}} allopathy |access-date=25 October 2013}} Citing: ''Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine'' (2008) and ''Mosby's Medical Dictionary'', 8th ed. (2009).</ref>  The expression was coined in 1810 by the creator of [[Unsolved:Homeopathy|homeopathy]], Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843).<ref name=Whorton2004/> Among homeopaths and other alternative medicine advocates, the expression "allopathic medicine" is still used to refer to "the broad category of medical practice that is sometimes called Western medicine, [[Medicine:Biomedicine|biomedicine]], [[Medicine:Evidence-based medicine|evidence-based medicine]], or modern medicine."<ref name=WHO>{{cite web|url=http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2001/WHO_EDM_TRM_2001.2.pdf|title=Legal Status of Traditional Medicine and Complementary/Alternative Medicine: A Worldwide Review|access-date=2007-09-12|year=2001| vauthors = Zhang X | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070926083307/http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2001/WHO_EDM_TRM_2001.2.pdf| archive-date= 26 September 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>

Use of the term remains common among homeopaths and has spread to other [[Medicine:Alternative medicine|alternative medicine]] practices. The meaning implied by the label has never been accepted by conventional medicine and is still considered pejorative by some.<ref name=Atwood2004>{{cite journal | vauthors = Atwood KC | title = Naturopathy, pseudoscience, and medicine: myths and fallacies vs truth | journal = MedGenMed | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | pages = 33 | date = March 2004 | pmid = 15208545 | pmc = 1140750 }}</ref> William Jarvis, an expert on alternative medicine and public health,<ref name="Closer to Truth Participants| PBS">{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/kcet/closertotruth/participants/index3.html|work=Closer to Truth |title=Participants |access-date=2008-03-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420042924/http://www.pbs.org/kcet/closertotruth/participants/index3.html |archive-date=20 April 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> states that "although many modern therapies can be construed to conform to an allopathic rationale (e.g., using a laxative to relieve constipation), standard medicine has never paid allegiance to an allopathic principle" and that the label "allopath" was "considered highly derisive by regular medicine."<ref name=Jarvis>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncahf.org/articles/a-b/allopathy.html |title=Misuse of the term "Allopathy" |access-date=2013-02-07 | vauthors = Jarvis WT |year=1996 |publisher=National Council Against Health Fraud}}</ref>

Many modern science-based medical treatments (antibiotics, vaccines, and chemotherapeutics, for example) do not fit Samuel Hahnemann's definition of allopathy, as they seek to prevent illness, or remove the cause of an illness by acting on the cause of disease.<ref name=Berkenwald1998>{{cite journal|title=In the name of medicine|journal=Annals of Internal Medicine|year=1998| vauthors = Berkenwald AD |volume=128|pages=246–50|issue=3|doi=10.7326/0003-4819-128-3-199802010-00023 |s2cid=53089206}}</ref><ref name=Federspil2003>{{cite journal | vauthors = Federspil G, Presotto F, Vettor R | title = A critical overview of homeopathy | journal = Annals of Internal Medicine | volume = 139 | issue = 8 | pages = W75; author reply W76 | date = October 2003 | pmid = 14568881 | doi = 10.7326/0003-4819-139-8-200310210-00026-w3 | url = http://annals.highwire.org/cgi/content/full/139/8/W-75 | access-date = 2010-12-30 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031230014516/http://annals.highwire.org/cgi/content/full/139/8/W-75 | archive-date = 2003-12-30 }}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Medicine:List of forms of alternative medicine|List of forms of alternative medicine]]
* [[Unsolved:Therapeutic nihilism|Therapeutic nihilism]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=n}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
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<ref name=UKDoH_CAM>{{cite web |title= Complementary and Alternative Medicine |url= http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Complementaryandalternativemedicine/index.htm |archive-date= 2010-04-07 |archive-url= http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100407164951/http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Complementaryandalternativemedicine/index.htm |work= UK Dept. of Health website |ref= {{harvid|UKDoH_CAM}}}}</ref>

<ref name=UM_CAM_Field>{{cite web |title= Cochrane CAM Field |publisher= Center for Integrative Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Maryland |work= University of Maryland website |url= http://www.compmed.umm.edu/cochrane.asp |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130928113542/http://www.compmed.umm.edu/cochrane.asp |archive-date= 2013-09-28 |url-status= dead }}</ref>

<ref name=VIFAB_definition>{{cite web|url=http://www.srab.dk/alternativ+behandling/hvad+er+alternativ+behandling-c7-/vifabs+definition |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924061206/http://www.srab.dk/alternativ%2Bbehandling/hvad%2Ber%2Balternativ%2Bbehandling-c7-/vifabs%2Bdefinition |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-09-24 |title=ViFABs definition af alternativ behandling |website=srab.dk }}</ref>

<ref name=WebMD2014>{{cite web|url=http://www.webmd.com/balance/tc/complementary-medicine-alternative-medical-systems|website=WebMD|title=Complementary Medicine – Alternative Medical Systems|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601195452/http://www.webmd.com/balance/tc/complementary-medicine-alternative-medical-systems|access-date=2015-06-04|archive-date=2015-06-01|date=2014-01-14|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name=whatiscam>{{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/ |title=What is Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)? |access-date=2006-07-11 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051208114636/http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/ |archive-date=2005-12-08 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="whccamp.hhs.gov">{{cite book |title = White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy
 | vauthors = Gordon JS, etal |chapter=Chapter 2: Overview of CAM in the United States: Recent History, Current Status, And Prospects for the Future |isbn=978-0160514760 |volume=[[Organization:National Institutes of Health|NIH]] Pub. 03-5411 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |url=http://whccamp.hhs.gov/finalreport.html |year=2002 |chapter-url=http://whccamp.hhs.gov/fr2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215040532/http://www.whccamp.hhs.gov/finalreport.html |archive-date=2013-02-15 }} Chapter 2 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110902075517/http://whccamp.hhs.gov/fr2.html archived] 2011-08-25.</ref>

<ref name="WHO_Trad_Med_Defs">{{Cite journal |title= Traditional Medicines: Definitions |url=https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/traditional/definitions/en/index.html |journal= WHO Website |access-date= 2012-11-11 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130927045217/http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/traditional/definitions/en/index.html |archive-date= 2013-09-27 |url-status= live | vauthors = Zhang X }} Extracted from {{harvnb|WHO|2000}}.</ref>

<ref name=Whorton2004>{{cite book|title = Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America|author=Whorton JC|edition=illustrated|editor=Oxford University Press US|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-517162-4|pages = 18, 52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RU0DndWVSPoC&q=allopathy+allopathic+greek+hahnemann&pg=PA18|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York}}</ref>

<ref name=Wieland2011>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wieland LS, Manheimer E, Berman BM | title = Development and classification of an operational definition of complementary and alternative medicine for the Cochrane collaboration | journal = Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | pages = 50–59 | year = 2011 | pmid = 21717826 | pmc = 3196853 | ref = {{harvid|Wieland et al.|2011}} }}</ref>

<ref name=ZollChanCoulRobeAdamArtu>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zollman C, Vickers A |title= What is complementary medicine? |department= ABC of complementary medicine |doi= 10.1136/bmj.319.7211.693 |pmid= 10480829 |pmc= 1116545 |journal= BMJ |volume= 319 |issue= 7211 |pages= 693–96 |year= 1999 }}<br />{{cite journal | vauthors = Chan E, Rappaport LA, Kemper KJ | title = Complementary and alternative therapies in childhood attention and hyperactivity problems | journal = Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics | volume = 24 | issue = 1 | pages = 4–8 | date = February 2003 | pmid = 12584479 | doi = 10.1097/00004703-200302000-00003 | s2cid = 3952162 }}<br />{{cite journal | vauthors = Coulson C, Jenkins J | title = Complementary and alternative medicine utilisation in NHS and private clinic settings: a United Kingdom survey of 400 infertility patients | journal = Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction | volume = 2 | issue = 1 | pages = 5 | date = April 2005 | pmid = 15807886 | pmc = 1084360 | doi = 10.1186/1743-1050-2-5 | doi-access = free }}<br />{{cite journal | vauthors = Roberti di Sarsina P | title = The Social Demand for a Medicine Focused on the Person: The Contribution of CAM to Healthcare and Healthgenesis | journal = Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine | volume = 4 | issue = Suppl 1 | pages = 45–51 | date = September 2007 | pmid = 18227933 | pmc = 2206228 | doi = 10.1093/ecam/nem094 }}<br />{{cite journal | vauthors = Adams M, Jewell AP | title = The use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by cancer patients | journal = International Seminars in Surgical Oncology | volume = 4 | issue = 1 | pages = 10 | date = April 2007 | pmid = 17470282 | pmc = 1872026 | doi = 10.1186/1477-7800-4-10 | doi-access = free }}<br />{{harvnb|Artus et al.|2007}}.</ref>
}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |author1= Committee on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public for the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine |title= Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States |url= https://archive.org/details/complementaryalt00inst |year= 2005 |publisher= National Academy Press |location= Washington, D.C. |isbn= 978-0309092708 |ref= {{harvid|IOM Report|2005}} }}
* {{cite journal | vauthors = Eisenberg DM, Kessler RC, Foster C, Norlock FE, Calkins DR, Delbanco TL | title = Unconventional medicine in the United States. Prevalence, costs, and patterns of use | journal = The New England Journal of Medicine | volume = 328 | issue = 4 | pages = 246–52 | date = January 1993 | pmid = 8418405 | doi = 10.1056/NEJM199301283280406 |ref= {{harvid|Eisenberg et al.|1993}} | doi-access = free }}
* {{cite journal | vauthors = Eisenberg DM, Davis RB, Ettner SL, Appel S, Wilkey S, Van Rompay M, Kessler RC | title = Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States, 1990-1997: results of a follow-up national survey | journal = JAMA | volume = 280 | issue = 18 | pages = 1569–75 | date = November 1998 | pmid = 9820257 | doi = 10.1001/jama.280.18.1569 |ref= {{harvid|Eisenberg et al.|1998}} | doi-access = free }}
* {{cite book| vauthors = Kasper DL, Fauci AS, Hauser SL, Longo DL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J |title=Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine|publisher=McGraw Hill Education|year=2015|location=New York|isbn=9780071802154|edition=19th|ref={{harvid|Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine|2015}}}}
* {{cite book | vauthors = Gevitz N | veditors = Bynum WG, Porter RS |title= Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine |volume= 1 |chapter= Chapter 28: Unorthodox Medical Theories |year= 1997 |orig-year= 1993 |isbn= 9780415164191 |publisher= Routledge |location= New York & London |editor2-link= Roy Porter }}
* {{cite book |title= WHO Guidelines on Basic Training and Safety in Chiropractic |url=https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/traditional/Chiro-Guidelines.pdf |author= World Health Organization |author-mask=0 |year= 2005 |location= Geneva |publisher= WHO |isbn= 978-9241593717 |ref= {{harvid|WHO|2005}}}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=no |others=yes lcheading=Alternative medicine}}
* {{Curlie|Health/Alternative/}}

{{Alternative medicine}}
{{Traditional Medicine}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alternative Medicine}}
[[Category:Alternative medicine| ]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

{{Sourceattribution|Terminology of alternative medicine|1}}