[Non-orthodox methods in pain therapy: Harmless and successful?].
As a result of changing public attitudes non-orthodox methods of pain therapy have become widely accepted within everyday health care. The view that non-orthodox methods, even if not overly successful are at least harmless is widely held. The present paper gives examples that support the existence of three risk factors: (a) Delay in the diagnosis of curable diseases owing to alternative, non-orthodox forms of therapy. (b) Occurrence of serious or even life-threatening side-effects of non-orthodox forms of pain therapy. (c) Development of unusual diseases which are not easily diagnosed by the physician because he or she does not know that so-called natural or herbal products may be the reason for the symptoms. It is felt that these problems with non-orthodox pain therapy should be known by the physician. Patients should be questioned about the use of alternative methods of treatment and physicians should be aware of unwanted effects of acupuncture, cell therapy, Ajurvedic medicines and herbal therapies. In addition, they should know that some drugs sold as herbal products with "no side-effects" are enriched with e.g. phenylbutazone and/or corticoids, for example.
Brune
K
K
Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Universitätsstraße 32, D-8520, Erlangen.