Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicines

1. Complementary and Alternative Medicines
2. Beyond the Classification of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM): Towards a Systematic Approach to Understanding CAM
3. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Used by Patients with Cancer: Evidence for Efficacy and Safety
4. The Regulation of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
5. Perspective on Chinese Medicine in Complementary and Alternative Medicine
6. Disentangling the Evidence: The Efficacy of Meditation in People with Cancer
7. Should Spirituality and Prayer be Part of Complementary Therapies?
8. From Traditional Medicines to Drug Discovery
9. Creating an Integrative Oncology Centre: The SolarisCare Experience
10. The Emergence of New Consumerism in Health-Care: The Empowered Health Consumer and the Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
11. Interaction Between Complementary and Alternative Medicines and Conventional Medicines
12. Australian Doctors and Complementary Medicine — Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and Don’t Know
13. Cancer, Primary Care and Complementary Therapies
14. Complementary and Alternative Medicine: The Perspective of a Medical Oncologist
15. Complementary and Alternative (or Unproven) Therapies: Perspectives of a Surgeon
16. Mind over Medicine: Revealing the Blame Game
17. Barriers to Conducting Complementary and Alternative Medicine Clinical Trials
18. Teaching Complementary and Alternative Medicines to Medical Students
19. The Consumer Experience — Case Studies of Complementary Therapy Use Among People Diagnosed with Cancer
20. Evaluating Complementary and Alternative Medicine
21. Complementary and Alternative Medicine: The Perspective of a Cancer Patient
22. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use by Adult Cancer Patients: An Overview

Would you use complementary and alternative medicines (CAMS)? Well, research has shown that up to three quarters of patients with cancer may at least supplement their treatment with such therapies, spending as much on CAMS as conventional drugs. How do you decide? This book provides a full range of perspectives on CAMS from patients and CAMS practitioners to conventional doctors who oppose the use of these alternative treatments because of the lack of evidence of efficacy and safety. Then there are the CAMS researchers, educators and regulators who view CAMS from different perspectives. The broad array of opinions build a complete picture of the issues for discerning readers to be adequately informed to make up their minds and draw their own conclusions.