Physician use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) literature.
OBJECTIVE
To document the interest of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) literature use among physicians.


METHODS
A retrospective study.


METHODS
A medical library service.


METHODS
Analysis of photocopy requests from published lists of reference in a two-year period by physicians in the province of British Columbia, Canada.


RESULTS
The average number of requests per article was 18.7 among CAM literature and 7.1 among non-CAM literature. Ten of the 15 most frequently requested articles were CAM papers. Review articles on herbal medicine demonstrated the most use.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a definite interest in CAM literature among a specific group of Canadian physicians. Use of scientifically credible literature in peer-reviewed journals will be helpful for patient care, teaching, and research in this field.
Wong
H C
HC
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Neill
J C
JC
D001955:British Columbia; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D006801:Humans; D007993:Libraries, Medical; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012189:Retrospective Studies