Complementary Medicine

Any therapeutic practice that does not satisfy the standards of the majority of the orthodox medical community in Australia, that is not taught widely at Australian medical schools and that is not generally available at Australian hospitals.

According to Dr Vicki Kotsirilos10 this definition varies cross culturally with more medical schools – both in Australia and overseas – offering courses in complementary medicine.

Dr Kotsirilos goes on to say that the diversity of these therapies makes them difficult to categorise as a group, yet they are often collectively referred to as ‘complementary’, ‘alternative’, ‘integrative’, ‘unorthodox’, ‘unconventional’, ‘unproven’, ‘natural’, ‘traditional’ and ‘holistic’ medicine, and are contrasted with ‘conventional’, ‘mainstream’, ‘allopathic’, ‘orthodox’, ‘conventional’ and ‘scientific’ medicine.

According to the NCCAM, CAM can be grouped as:
i. Alternative Medical Systems: include naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda and homeopathy.
ii. Mind-Body Interventions: include patient support groups, cognitive-behavioural therapy, meditation, prayer, mental healing, and therapies that use creative outlets such as art, music, or dance.
iii. Biologically Based Therapies: include herbs, foods, vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements.
iv. Manipulative and Body-Based methods: include therapeutic massage, shiatsu, chiropractic, and osteopathy.
v. Energy Therapies: include acupuncture, therapeutic touch, reiki, Chi Gong, electromagnetic fields, magnetic fields, kinesiology.

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