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Complementary & Alternative Therapies
Definitions
Acupuncture and
oriental medicine
Acupuncture, Tai Chi, herbal formulas, massage and manipulation (Tui
Na), diet, acupotomy, external & internal Qi Gong.
Alternative medical
systems
Complete systems of theory and practice that have been developed
outside of the Western biomedical approach. It is divided into four
subcategories: Acupuncture and Oriental medicine; Traditional
Indigenous systems; unconventional Western systems; naturopathy.
Alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is defined as any treatment (substance or
modality) that is used by or prescribed to patients that is not a Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) approved pharmaceutical substance or
device; FDA -approved substances or devices that are being used for
indications and in doses not approved by the FDA for that agent or
device. This definition addresses the legitimating power of the FDA
and the process by which drugs are approved.
Art therapy
As a form of psychotherapy, is an interdisciplinary practice across
health and medicine, using various visual art forms such as drawing,
painting, sculpture and collage.
Bioelectromagnetics
Bioelectromagnetics refers to the unconventional use of electromagnetic
fields for medical purposes.
Biofield
Biofield medicine involves systems that use subtle energy fields in and
around the body for medical purposes.
Biologically-based
therapies
Natural and biologically-based practices, interventions, and products.
Many overlap with conventional medicine’s use of dietary supplements.
Includes four types of therapies--phytotherapy or herbalism; special diet
therapies; orthomolecular medicine; pharmacological, biological and
instrumental interventions.
Clinical preventative
practices
Unconventional approaches used to screen for and prevent healthrelated imbalances, dysfunction and disease.
Complementary and
alternative medicine
(CAM)
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) covers a broad range
of healing philosophies, approaches, and therapies. CAM therapies are
treatments and healthcare practices that do not form part of the
dominant healthcare management paradigm (e.g., not approved by the
Food and Drug Administration; not routinely taught in conventional
medical schools; are used 'off-label' from FDA recommendations(e.g.,
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different dosage, disease or condition differing from the FDA approval,
etc.; or are not covered by most insurance policies). Therapies used
alone are often referred to as alternative, and when in combination with
other alternative therapies, or in addition to conventional therapies they
are often referred to as complementary.
Complementary
medicine
Alternative therapies are sometimes also termed complementary. There
are subtle differences in the meaning of these terms. Most
complementary practitioners in the United States, whatever their
training, view their work as additional to conventional therapies, not in
competition to them.
Complementary
methods
Methods applied by conventionally trained physicians and health care
providers are based on tradition, or the perspective of the human arts,
which are not investigated or taught at universities.
Guided-imagery
A mind-body intervention aimed at easing stress, and promoting a sense
of peace and tranquillity at a stressful or difficult time in someone's life.
Health promotion
Involves laboratory and epidemiological research on healing, the
healing process, health promoting factors, and autoregulatory
mechanisms that forms the basis for health messages to the public.
Lifestyle therapies
This subcategory deals with complete systems of lifestyle management
that include behavioral changes, dietary changes, exercise, stress
management, and addiction control. To be classified as CAM, the
changes in lifestyle must be based on a nonorthodox system of
medicine, be applied in unconventional ways, or be applied across nonWestern diagnostic. Approaches
Manipulative and
body-based systems
This category refers to systems that are based on manipulation,
movement of the body or both, and is divided into three subcategories:
chiropractic medicine; massage and body work; unconventional
physical therapies.
Mind-body medicine
Mind-body medicine involves behavioral, psychological, social, and
spiritual approaches to health. It is divided into four subcategories:
mind-body systems; mind-body methods; religion and spirituality;
social and contextual areas.
Mind-body methods
Individual modalities used in mind-body approaches to health. These
approaches are often considered conventional practice and overlap with
CAM only when applied to medical conditions for which they are not
usually used (for example, hypnosis for genetic problems). e.g.,
CAM: Yoga, Internal Qigong, Tai Chi.
Behavioral Medicine (BM): Psychotherapy, Meditation, Imagery,
Hypnosis, Biofeedback, Support groups.
Overlapping CAM/BM: Art therapy, Music Therapy, Dance Therapy,
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Journaling, Humor, Body psychotherapy.
Mind-body systems
This subcategory involves whole systems of mind-body practice that
are used largely as primary interventions for disease. They are rarely
delivered alone; instead, they are used in combination with lifestyle
interventions, or are part of a traditional medical system.
Music therapy
Prescribed use of music and musical interventions in order to restore,
maintain, and improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual
health and well-being.
Naturopathy
This subcategory is an eclectic collection of natural systems and
therapies that has gained prominence in the United States.
Orthomolecular
medicine
This subcategory refers to products used as nutritional and food
supplements (and not covered in other categories). These products are
used for preventive or therapeutic purposes. They are usually used in
combinations and at high doses. Examples include niacinamide for
arthritis and melatonin to prevent breast cancer.
Pharmacological and
instrumental
interventions
This subcategory includes products and procedures applied in an
unconventional manner that are not covered in other categories.
Phytotherapy or
herbalism
This subcategory addresses plant-derived preparations that are used for
therapeutic and preventive purposes.
Religion and
Spirituality
This subcategory deals with those non-behavioral aspects of spirituality
and religion that examine their relationship to biological function or
clinical conditions.
e.g., Confession, Soul Retrieval, Nonlocality, Spiritual Healing,
Nontemporality, Special Healers
Social and
contextual areas
This subcategory refers to social, cultural, symbolic, and contextual
interventions that are not covered in other areas. e.g.,
CAM: Caring-based Approaches (for example, Holistic Nursing,
Pastoral Care), Intuitive Diagnosis
Overlapping: Placebo, Explanatory Models, Community-based
Approaches (for example, Alcoholics Anonymous, Native American
sweat rituals).
Spirituality
Something that in ecclesiastical law belongs to the church or to a cleric
as such; sensitivity or attachment to religious values; the quality or state
of being spiritual. Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 2001.
Traditional
indigenous systems
This subcategory includes major indigenous systems of medicine other
than acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine. Native American
Medicine, Traditional Aboriginal, Ayurvedic Medicine, Unani-Tibbi,
SDDHI, Curanderismo, Kampo Medicine, Central and South American,
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Traditional African Medicine, Psychic Surgery.
Unconventional
Western systems
This subcategory includes alternative medical systems developed in the
West that are not classified elsewhere. CAM: Homeopathy, Functional
Medicine, Environmental Medicine, Radiesthesia, Psionic Medicine,
Cayce-based Systems, Kneipp “classical”, Orthomolecular Medicine,
Radionics. Overlapping: Anthroposophically-extended Medicine
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