title: What complementary and alternative medicine practitioners say about health and health care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We wanted to explore the beliefs and practices of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners.
  
  
  METHODS
  A representative sample of local CAM practitioners was selected for 32 face-to-face in-depth interviews. Interviews were taped, transcribed, and reviewed by all coauthors. Analysis and interpretation were reached by consensus, using an iterative process in multidisciplinary group meetings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CAM practitioners interviewed stressed the holistic, empowering, and person-centered nature of CAM. They described themselves as healers, employing attentiveness, touch, and love to increase self-awareness and strengthen the healing process, usually in chronic illness, often with pain. They affirmed goodwill and respect toward conventional medicine, calling for greater integration of conventional and complementary health care; however, they identified the major differences of conventional medicine and several formidable barriers. They displayed concern about accessibility issues in health care and stressed that attitudes and beliefs were often larger impediments to integration than were economic or scientific considerations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, CAM practitioners want to work with physicians and other conventional health care workers in seeking a holistic, accessible, patient-centered, integrated health care system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School, Madison, Wisc. 53715, USA. bbarrett@fammed.wisc.edu
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Lucille
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marchand
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scheder
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Appelbaum
authors.forename: Mary Beth
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Plane
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blustein
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maberry
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Capperino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged