Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The definition of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is relatively new, complex, and evolving. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional, mainstream medicine. Terms that are important to distinguish within this definition include conventional medicine—practiced by doctors of allopathic (MD) or osteopathic (DO) medicine and other health professionals, including nurses and physical therapists; complementary medicine—used together with conventional medicine; and alternative medicine—used in place of conventional medicine. Although CAM encompasses an extremely broad group of practices, it is usually divided into four major domains, as described by NCCAM: (1) biologically based practices, (2) manipulative and body-based practices, (3) mind-body medicine, and (4) energy medicine. In addition, NCCAM recognizes whole medical systems that cut across all four domains, such as traditional Chinese medicine. Other terms often used to describe this wide range of health and healing practices include unconventional, natural, holistic, whole-person, integrative, and integral medicine. Many of these terms imply the combined use of both CAM and conventional medicine, using the best of both to create an integrative approach to health care delivery. They often embody concepts of treating the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. Currently the term integrative medicine has emerged as the most commonly used term to describe this blended approach and is defined by NCCAM as that which combines mainstream medical therapies and CAM therapies for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness.

Given that population studies over the past several decades show that a growing number of people are using, and continue to use, some form of CAM, this topic has emerged as an important dimension and a new field of study within our health care system, as well as many others around the world. This entry describes the historical evolution, growth, and development of the field of CAM, including statistics regarding the populations that use CAM in the United States and recommendations from leading health care organizations as to future directions.