Is prayer CAM?
BACKGROUND
Alternative medicine researchers and policy makers have classified prayer as a mind-body intervention, and thus, a modality of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). As such, numerous epidemiological surveys of CAM utilization-which have included prayer-depict increasing CAM use, particularly in specific racial and ethnic groups.


OBJECTIVE
This paper discusses the implications of conflating prayer and CAM, especially regarding the definitions of both concepts and the resulting statistics of CAM utilization.
Tippens
Kim
K
Helfgott Research Institute, National College of Natural Medicine, Portland, OR 09201, USA. ktippens@ncnm.edu
Marsman
Kevin
K
Zwickey
Heather
H
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D029221:Faith Healing; D006801:Humans; D026441:Mind-Body Therapies / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D026443:Spiritual Therapies / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data