WORLD> America
Americans turn to alternative medicine
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-12 07:44

About four in 10 US adults and one in nine children are turning to unconventional medical approaches for chronic pain and other health problems, health officials said on Wednesday.

Back pain was the leading reason for Americans turning to complementary and alternative medicine techniques, followed by neck and joint pain as well as arthritis, according to the survey by the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 38 percent adults used some form of complementary and alternative medicine in 2007, compared to 36 percent in 2002, the last time the government tracked the matter.

For the first time, the survey looked at use of such medicine by children under 18, finding that about 12 percent used it, officials said. The reasons included back pain, colds, anxiety, stress and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Complementary medicine is used together with conventional treatment, while alternative medicine is used instead. This includes such things as herbal medicines and other natural products, chiropractic techniques, acupuncture, massage, meditation and others.

Many feel these may work better for them than typical medical approaches, with fewer side effects.

"As I look at this data, what I'm most struck with is how much people are turning to CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) approaches as part of the management of chronic pain conditions, particularly chronic back pain, but also neck pain and musculoskeletal pain and headache," said Dr Josephine Briggs, director of the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the NIH.

"And from my days as an internist seeing patients in my office, I know that these are conditions that are hard to manage and tough to treat," Briggs said.