The journal of alternative and complementary medicine : research on paradigm, practice, and policy
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J Altern Complement Med · Nov 2007
Turkish general practitioners and complementary/alternative medicine.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is in the spotlight of society. However, what is the position of physicians at this point? ⋯ GPs are aware of the subject's importance and want to learn more about CAM and improve their knowledge. It would be reasonable to provide training possibilities for GPs, primarily for the CAM types highly used by the population and most requested by the physicians.
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J Altern Complement Med · Oct 2007
Randomized Controlled Trial Controlled Clinical TrialThe combined effect of relaxation response and acupuncture on quality of life in patients with HIV: a pilot study.
Treatment advances have transformed human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) into a chronic manageable disease; quality of life (QoL) has become an important health outcome. Some studies have shown the individual effects of acupuncture and the relaxation response (RR) in improving QoL of patients with HIV/AIDS. In light of the presumed shared features of acupuncture and the RR, we conducted a pilot study to examine the effects of adding the RR to usual acupuncture treatment on improving the QoL of HIV/AIDS patients. ⋯ Data from this pilot trial suggested that adding the RR to acupuncture may enhance improvement in QoL of patients with HIV/AIDS. Further investigation on this putative synergistic effect is warranted.
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J Altern Complement Med · Oct 2007
Methodology and reporting quality of systematic review/meta-analysis of traditional Chinese medicine.
Good systematic reviews/meta-analyses are important sources of information for clinicians, patients, government officials, and other decision makers. Now, there is an increasing number of systematic reviews/meta-analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Thus, it is necessary to assess the quality of these reviews. ⋯ The methodology and reporting quality are poor in both systematic reviews and meta-analysis reviews of TCM published in paper-based journals in China. We should respect the need for high-quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and do these according to specification.
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J Altern Complement Med · Jul 2007
Randomized Controlled Trial Controlled Clinical TrialDry needling of trigger points with and without paraspinal needling in myofascial pain syndromes in elderly patients.
To compare the efficacies of dry needling of trigger points (TrPs) with and without paraspinal needling in myofascial pain syndrome of elderly patients. ⋯ TrP and paraspinal dry needling is suggested to be a better method than TrP dry needling only for treating myofascial pain syndrome in elderly patients.
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J Altern Complement Med · May 2007
Policy for therapeutic massage in an academic health center: a model for standard policy development.
Massage is the most common complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy used in hospitals in the United States. As such, it is often the first CAM therapy to be integrated with conventional medicine. However, few academic medical centers have a written standard policy to guide this integration. This lack of standard policy may impede institutions from offering massage therapy as a clinical service, and may put health care professionals and institutions at risk through a failure to clearly address criteria for practice credentials or malpractice liability. ⋯ With minor modifications of this policy by individual institutions, adoption of this policy may facilitate the thoughtful integration of this CAM therapy into academic health care settings, meeting the unique requirements of academic health care institutions while serving the needs of patients.