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Interview with Josephine P. Briggs, M.D.,
Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
2007 National Health Interview Survey Data on
U.S. Adult Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
We have new data on the rate of complementary and alternative
medicine use by the U.S. public, very reliable data from a survey
done together with the CDC.
And what that is telling us is that 38 percent of American adults are
using some form of complementary and alternative medicine
to help with their health.
Four out of ten adults, approximately.
Pain: The Most Common Reason Given for the
Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
The most common reason why people turn to complementary
and alternative medicine in our survey results
is chronic back pain, by far and away the leading reason
to use complementary and alternative medicine.
Neck pain, joint pain, headache: all these other conditions
are also given to as common reasons.
But chronic back pain is the leading reason;
a very common and difficult condition to treat.
Rigorous Science Is Used to Evaluate
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Given the high rate of public use,
we think it is very important that rigorous science be brought
to study these various approaches to health and wellness.
The American public is using this so we think
the American public wants rigorous science and good answers
both about the safety and also how well it works.
Their pain conditions are ones which conventional
health care methods don't always work well.
And so we think that the public use is telling us
there's promise, but we need rigorous evaluation.
And that's what the science that NCCAM supports
will bring to these questions.
Time to Talk About CAM:
Patient-Health Care Provider Interactions
It is very important that people talk to their physicians
and other health care providers about their use
of complementary and alternative medicine.
We performed a survey together with AARP on this issue,
and we were surprised to learn that as many as two-thirds
of the people who were using complementary and alternative medicine
weren't telling their doctors about it.
We think this is a very sizeable concern and it's the reason
we have launched a campaign which we call Time to Talk,
which provides health care providers and patients
with materials to encourage a dialogue.
A dialogue about complementary and alternative medicine
is a very key part of safe and integrated care.
It's part of a team work in which the patient is a key member,
but the physician or other health care provider really needs to
have the facts in order to ensure that care is coordinated
and working to promote the health of the patient.
NCCAM's Mission
The mission of the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
is to bring rigorous science to the study of the various kinds
of complementary and alternative medicine
modalities being used by the American public.
And part of that mission is building the kind of
scientific research teams that can do that research.
And a third part, and a very important part is providing
the American public with rigorous scientifically valid information on
the safety and efficacy of these various kinds of health care.
[door clicks, footsteps... ]