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Complementary and alternative medicine have been used for the treatment of a variety of diseases for a long time. Since the applications of these two branches of medicine have been increasingly spreading globally and have been accompanied by inadequate scientific studies in the literature, the NIH has established the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). The aims of the centre are to investigate the safety/reliability and efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine applications, and to integrate those that are scientifically proven to be effective into conventional therapies. All health protection and medical applications/practices outside of conventional medicine are referred to as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
CAM applications are becoming widespread in Turkey, as well, and are sought by 34-77% of sufferers as the first choice for therapy.
Recently CAM, which has found applications in a wide range of areas, has also been used for psychiatric diseases. The use of CAM in the treatment of chronic pain, eating and sleeping abnormalities, alcohol and substance addiction, Alzheimer's disease and delirium has yielded contradictory results in the national and international literature. Therefore, it has been reported that CAM methods require further evidence-based studies.
Taking into consideration the widespread use and popularity of CAM, it is evident that these methods must be investigated further for their side effects, dosages, indications, interactions with other drugs, and standardisations. In addition, the regulations concerning their use must be redrawn and physicians must follow the relevant literature in order to prevent possible harm to their patients before initiating CAM treatments.