NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite the public's reported widespread use of acupuncture, herbs and other complementary and alternative medicines, many physicians lack the information they need to counsel their patients about such treatments, study findings show.

"Physicians are fielding lots of questions from their patients about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and they would like to know enough about these various practices to be able to steer patients away from harmful treatments and, to a lesser extent, towards ones that might be beneficial," study author Dr. Lisa Corbin Winslow, of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, told Reuters Health.

She and co-author Dr. Howard Shapiro surveyed 276 Colorado physicians regarding their personal experience with CAM and patient discussions about CAM.

Nearly one quarter of the physicians said they had used CAM and roughly two-thirds said they had patients who used CAM, Winslow and Shapiro report in the May 27th issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Yet only one third of the physicians said they felt "somewhat comfortable" discussing CAM use with their patients and only 35% said they had "somewhat positive" feelings about such discussions, study findings indicate. The remaining physicians felt uncomfortable or neutral or had negative or neutral feelings.

Underscoring these findings was the fact that 84% of the doctors indicated an interest in learning more about complementary and alternative medicines, Winslow and Shapiro report.

Overall, doctors who said they used one or more CAM were reportedly seven times more likely to recommend CAM to their patients. Further, those interested in learning more about CAM were more than four times more likely than their disinterested peers to recommend CAM to their patients.

In light of the findings, Wilson recommends that "more education about CAM (be added) into medical school curricula, residency education, and continuing education courses for practicing physicians."

What's more, patients can also do their part to ensure that they reap only positive benefits from CAM use, according to Wilson. "Tell your physician(s) what CAM modalities you are using for your health (and) try to find CAM and medical practitioners who are willing to communicate with each other about you and the care they are providing to minimize the possibility of treatment interactions and maximize possible benefits," she said.

Perhaps most importantly, Wilson urged consumers to "be wary of any treatment or practitioner who claims to be 100% safe, 100% effective, or who encourages blanket abandonment of conventional care."

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2002;162:1176-1181.

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