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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. A team of researchers from the University
of Melbourne has released the results of a survey designed to
probe the use and knowledge about complementary therapies among
general practitioners in the state of Victoria. Nearly half of
the doctors had considered practicing one or more complementary
therapies and over 80 per cent had referred patients to
practitioners of these therapies. Acupuncture, hypnosis, and
meditation were the therapies found most acceptable and effective
by the GPs and 34 per cent of them had actually taken training in
meditation followed by acupuncture at 23 per cent, vitamin and
mineral therapy at 23 per cent, hypnosis at 20 per cent, and
herbal medicine at 12 per cent. The GPs expressed strong support
for the idea that hypnosis, meditation, and chiropracty should be
covered by the Australian Medicare system. They considered
vitamin and mineral therapy, homeopathy, aromatherapy,
reflexology, and herbal medicine to be the least effective of the
complementary modalities covered in the survey.
Another survey involving 161 oncologists (cancer specialists)
found that almost a quarter of them had considerable knowledge
about the use of meditation, relaxation, visual imagery,
antioxidant therapy, high-dose vitamin C therapy, and
microwave/Tronado therapy in the treatment of cancer. Very few
knew anything about cellular therapy, magnetotherapy, and psychic
surgery. Most oncologists (69-82 per cent) thought that
meditation, relaxation, and visual imagery would be helpful in
both curative and palliative (symptom relief) treatment of cancer.
Acupuncture and hypnotherapy were also deemed helpful whereas
coffee enemas, diet therapy (Gerson/macrobiotic),
Iscador/mistletoe therapy, ozone therapy, and psychic surgery were
considered to be ineffective and often harmful. The oncologists
often over-estimated their patients' use of complementary
therapies. For example, only 0.5 per cent of cancer patients in a
recent survey reported using aromatherapy while the oncologists
estimated that 15 per cent used this therapy. The use of herbal
therapies and shark cartilage was also vastly over-estimated at 45
per cent and 15 per cent respectively versus an actual use of 10
per cent and 4 per cent respectively.
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