Marie Pirotta, Vicki Kotsirilos, Jared Brown, Jon Adams, Tessa Morgan and Margaret Williamson
Complementary medicine in general practice – a national survey of GP attitudes and knowledge
AFP, 2010, 39 (12), 946-950
Integrative medicine (IM) has been defined as, ‘the combination of orthodox and complementary medicine with anemphasis on lifestyle changes’.1 The broad term ‘complementary therapies’ includes both ingested medicines, which are the focus of this research and are referred to as complementary medicines (CM) in this article, and other practices, such as acupuncture and physical therapies. About 40% of the general population use some form of CM every day2 and about one-third of Australians will consult their general practitioner about this use.3 There is evidence thatCMs are not always safe4 and that the CM knowledge of GPs is not always sufficient to correctly advise safe use.5–7
