Integration of complementary and alternative medicine information and advice in chronic disease management guidelines

Abstract

The growing evidence on the benefits and risks of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and its high rate of use (69% of Australians) particularly for chronic or recurrent conditions means increasing attention on CAM. However, few people disclose CAM use to their GP, and health professionals tend to inadequately discuss CAM-related issues with their patients, partly due to insufficient knowledge. As clinical and non-clinical chronic condition management guidelines are a means to educate primary health care practitioners, we undertook a content analysis of guidelines relevant to two common chronic conditions cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to assess the..