The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Accommodating Pluralism

by Daniel Callahan (Editor)

Overview

At the center of the debate over complementary and alternative medicine—from acupuncture and chiropractic treatments to homeopathy and nutritional supplements—is how to scientifically measure the effectiveness of a particular treatment. Fourteen scholars from the fields of medicine, philosophy, sociology, and cultural and folklore studies examine that debate, and the clash between growing public support and the often hostile stance of clinicians and medical researchers.

Proponents and critics have different methodologies and standards of evidence—raising the question of how much pluralism is acceptable in a medical context—particularly in light of differing worldviews and the struggle to define medicine in the modern world. The contributors address both the methodological problems of assessment and the conflicting cultural perspectives at work in a patient's choice of treatment. Sympathetic to CAM, the contributors nonetheless offer careful critiques of its claims, and suggest a variety of ways it can be taken seriously, yet subject to careful scrutiny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589010161
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	01/13/2004
Series:	Hastings Center Studies in Ethics series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Callahan is director of international programs at The Hastings Center and senior fellow at the Harvard Medical School. His many books include False Hopes and The Troubled Dream of Life: In Search of a Peaceful Death.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Daniel Callahan

Assessments of Efficacy in Biomedicine: The Turn toward Methodological Pluralism
Kenneth F. Shaffner

CAM and Cultural Diversity: Ethics and Epistemology Converge
David J. Hufford

The Role of Science in Assessing Conventional, Complementary, and Alternative Medicines
Loretta M. Kopelman

Personal Experience, Popular Epistemology, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research
Bonnie B. O'Connor

The Placebo Effect: Implications for the Study and Practice of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Howard Brody

Spirituality in Clinical Care: A Brief Review of Patient Desire, Physician Response, and Research Opportunities
David B. Larson and Susan B. Larson

Interpreting Results from Randomized Clinical Trials of Complementary/Alternative Interventions: The Role of Trial Quality and Pre-trial Beliefs
Asbjorn Hrobjartsson and Stig Brorson

Evidence, Ethics, and the Evaluation of Global Medicine
Wayne B. Jonas

The Nature of Evidence in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Ideas from Trials of Homeopathy in Chronic Headache
Tom Whitmarsh

Medical Culture and CAM Culture: Science and Ritual in the Academic Medical Center
Paul Root Wolpe

The Quest for Holism in Medicine
Alfred I. Tauber

Contributors

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is a small but meaty and provocative book. It gives the reader an overview of the various arguments for and against what has become known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In addition to its balanced presentation, it points the way to possible future validation of CAM and dialogue concerning it. This is a hot and timely subject treated with scholarly seriousness and intensity. "—Health Progress

Health Progress

This is a small but meaty and provocative book. It gives the reader an overview of the various arguments for and against what has become known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In addition to its balanced presentation, it points the way to possible future validation of CAM and dialogue concerning it. This is a hot and timely subject treated with scholarly seriousness and intensity.

Editorial Reviews

Although many books are available about CAM, this books makes its mark because it explores the relationship between CAM and conventional medicine.

The Annals of Pharmacotherapy

This is a small but meaty and provocative book. It gives the reader an overview of the various arguments for and against what has become known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In addition to its balanced presentation, it points the way to possible future validation of CAM and dialogue concerning it. This is a hot and timely subject treated with scholarly seriousness and intensity.

Health Progress

"Highly recommend[ed] . . . as a resource for all researchers and investigators, academics and scholars, and students both favorable or opposed to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This thought-provoking and exciting book is unparalleled in the field. It offers food for intellectual thought and meets the need for elucidating critical yet balanced discourse on the meaning and therapeutic values and efficacy of CAM."—Doody's Review Service

"Although many books are available about CAM, this books makes its mark because it explores the relationship between CAM and conventional medicine."—The Annals of Pharmacotherapy

From the Publisher

There is an inverse relationship between consumers' acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine and the orthodox scientific community's resistance to this quest for holism in global medicine. This compilation of 11 essays by multidisciplinary contributors provides a balanced view of paradigmic, methodological, and cultural issues introduced by Callahan (Harvard Medical School): Is there only one valid method of scientific evaluation? What criteria for evidence are acceptable for alternative and complementary therapies? What is the role of spirituality in health? Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Reviewer: Martha J. Greenberg, PhD, RN (Pace University)
Description: This is a compilation of critical essays that address methodological problems of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) assessment and cultural perspectives of CAM treatments.
Purpose: The editor's main goal is to present an objective discussion of research and cultural issues in CAM from multidisciplinary perspectives, e.g., medicine, philosophy, sociology. Accordingly the essays address scientific measurement of CAM efficacy and debate the acceptance (or lack of) research pluralism in medical research.
Audience: I highly recommend this book as a resource for all researchers and investigators, academics and scholars, and students both favorable or opposed to CAM. It could become an essential book in graduate research methodology. Renowned ethicist Daniel Callahan has gathered an impressive team of contributors from philosophy, cultural and folklore studies, and sociology.
Features: The contributors discuss ethics and epistemology, scientific evaluation of CAM, and the patient experience of CAM. Much of the book debates the issue of evidence in CAM and the ways science asks questions. Discussion is presented in a scholarly and intellectually stimulating yet pragmatic way as to make the book infinitely readable and relevant to investigators, clinicians, and scholars.
Assessment: This thought provoking and exciting book is unparalleled in the field and I highly recommend it. It offers food for intellectual thought and meets the need for elucidating critical yet balanced discourse on the meaning and therapeutic values and efficacy of CAM.

Doody's Review Service