Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Article 3 - Complementary Medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in the UK is substantial and increasing even among those patients using conventional evidence-based medicine; some sources suggest this could be >20% of the general population. The reasons why patients look to CAM for this are numerous and complex with many claiming that they gain significant benefit above and beyond the placebo effect. The recent decision to provide a register of homeopathic practitioners has recently brought to the fore the role CAM plays in the overall healthcare treatments available to patients, below is a recent article in The Times which succinctly articulates both sides of the argument.

The health regulator has endorsed a register of qualified homeopaths in a move that scientific campaigners said was a “slap in the face” for conventional health professionals.

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) insisted that it had no opinion on whether homeopathic treatment was effective. Rather, it wanted to offer potential customers reassurance that practitioners met the training and standards set out by homeopaths themselves.

Harry Cayton, chief executive of the authority, acknowledged that many medical professionals believed that homeopathy was useless. “It’s a matter of opinion. The people who use homeopathy have an opinion. What we’re saying is, if you choose homeopathy, you probably want to have a homeopath who is competent within the rules of homeopathy,” he said.

The authority oversees the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and other regulators that supervise legally defined medical professionals. A register run by the Society of Homeopaths will now be added to a voluntary scheme that the authority runs for professionals without legal protection, such as counsellors and psychotherapists.

“It’s not saying anything about homeopathy. It’s accrediting the register, not the therapy,” Mr Cayton said. “It’s really a consumer protection.”

Simon Singh, chairman of the Good Thinking Society and co-author of Trick or Treatment?, said that few consumers would make that distinction and might assume homeopathy had been given official backing.

“The PSA’s decision gives undeserved credibility to one of the highest forms of quackery known to mankind,” he said. “It is a slap in the face to serious health professionals who come under the PSA’s umbrella and, more seriously, it will encourage patients to make potentially dangerous decisions by steering them towards clueless quacks.”

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine based on the idea that “like treats like” and substances that cause problems can be used in very small quantities to treat those problems.

Doctors are generally suspicious of such claims and trials have struggled to find strong evidence that homeopathy is more effective than placebo. Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, has said it is “rubbish” and should not be available on the NHS.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, recanted his past support for homeopathy last week, saying that it had been a “mistake” and insisting that “we have to follow the scientific evidence and spent money on what works”.

Homeopaths will now be able to display a quality mark. Miranda Parsons, chairwoman of the Society of Homeopaths, said: “The quality mark will give patients extra peace of mind by demonstrating that anyone who holds the mark is committed to high standards and professionalism.”