Courses Involving Complementary and Alternative Medicine at US Medical Schools

Abstract

AMONG THE MANY forces influencing the present health care environment is the rapid increase in the use of complementary and alternative medical therapies. We have known for several years that approximately 1 in 3 adults in the United States uses chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, or one of many other treatment modalities.¹ Reasons cited for the trend toward the use of alternative therapies include dissatisfaction with conventional health care that is perceived as ineffectual, too expensive, or too focused on curing disease rather than maintaining good health.² Alternative therapies are often seen as less authoritarian and more congruent with patients' values and beliefs about the meaning of health and illness.³ Medical educators increasingly realize that it is not a question of whether to address these issues in the education of future physicians but rather how to respond to this relentless challenge to evolve.⁴