One in six Australian doctors now treat patients with alternative medical techniques such as acupuncture and hypnosis, according to a University of Queensland study.
For her PhD with the University's Anthropology and Sociology Department, Dr Heather Eastwood examined the medical profession's increased use of alternative medicine including acupuncture, musculoskeletal therapy (chiropractic), and phytotherapy (herbal and nutritional medicines).
She interviewed and observed 60 Brisbane health care professionals at work, including 30 doctors.
She also examined statistics kept by the Health Insurance Commission (HIC), the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Integrated Medicine Association (IMA) and the Australian Complementary Medicine Association (ACMA).
Dr Eastwood, an associate lecturer with the Department, said very little research had previously been done on the increasing trend among Australian doctors to practice alternative medicine.
Dr Eastwood noted that RACGP figures showed the number of Australian doctors using the techniques had doubled in just four years from 2000 in 1992 to 4000 in 1996.
Her study indicated that around 3000 doctors out of Australia's 23,000 general practitioners used acupuncture as part of their daily practice and noted that the RACGP regularly ran continuing medical education courses for doctors in alternative medicine techniques.
'Alternative medicine is becoming more accepted by the medical profession, with the trend assisted by the Federal Government,' Dr Eastwood said.
In October last year, the Federal Government held the first Australian Alternative Medicines Summit which recommended vocational registration for alternative medicine practitioners, she said.
In addition, Medicare now offered a rebate for acupuncture treatments and these had risen from 655,136 claimed treatments in 1984-85 to 903,194 in 1994-95, she said.
The Government also provided funding for studies into the efficacy of alternative medicine such as a major vitamin trial currently under way at the Sydney Royal Women's Hospital. Some universities were also now offering courses in areas such as manipulation, hypnosis and naturopathy, she said.
The study found that doctors used alternative medicine to treat patients even though they acknowledged such techniques had not been scientifically proven to relieve certain conditions.
'Many said that even though they believed the techniques were not operating as a placebo, they could not explain why they worked for conditions such as asthma and eczema,' Dr Eastwood said.
'They said they used the techniques because they worked and were in constant demand from consumers. Many said the techniques were more effective for conditions such as smoking, pain, headache and arthritis than conventional medicines.
'The doctors related increased consumer demand for the therapies to a better-educated community reluctant to take synthetic drugs and keen on greater health care choice.'
She said the doctors she interviewed were concerned about competing with alternative medical practitioners who were not doctors as well as with other general practitioners.
For more information, contact Dr Eastwood (telephone 07 3365 3150 or email: h.eastwood@mailbox.uq.edu.au).
