title: [Use of alternative and complementary therapies in clinical practice using multiple sclerosis as an example].
abstract: The discrimination between complementary and alternative medicine / therapies                     (CAM) at one hand and conventional treatment at the other hand is vague and                     still under controversial discussion. Furthermore, most CAM lacks evidence for                     effectiveness, and in some cases for some CAM potential health risks or high                     costs are reported. The countless methods and treatments of CAM have been                     categorized by National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine into                     five groups: alternative medical systems, mind-body-interventions,                     biologically-based therapies, manipulating and body-based therapies, and energy                     therapies. CAM are known and used cross-cultural and are applied to a variety of                     different medical conditions. Patients report manifold reasons for using CAM,                     which will be discussed on the sample of patients with multiple sclerosis. It                     was shown often, that patients use CAM without informing their attending                     physician. Applying CAM is essentially affected by wishes of patients for active                     therapy attendance, dissatisfaction with conventional treatment and negative                     patient-physician-relation. Therefore, the attending physician should be well                     informed about CAM and should be open to talk about CAM to advice the patient to                     his best knowledge. Otherwise the patient may move synchronously or serial into                     two separated therapy settings without informing his attending physician, which                     may cause health or financial damage.
authors.affiliation: Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurologie, Arbeitsgruppe Neuroimmunologie, Universitätsklinikum Rostock. sophia.mews@med.uni-rostock.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mews
authors.forename: U K
authors.initials: UK
authors.lastname: Zettl
mesh_terms: D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000628:therapy*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations