Alternative medicine common in kids; doctors unaware

In places as far-flung as Wales and Australia, about half of the children seen at pediatric hospitals are using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), according to investigators.

In a second study, British researchers found that children with chronic diseases were three times more likely to use CAM than healthy children.

In both studies, which were reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, the researchers found that parents and their children were unlikely to discuss CAM use with their physicians.

Although the number of people using complementary or alternative remedies has been increasing with time, there have been no studies of CAM use by young people, not Dr. Colin V. E. Powell, from University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and his associates.

To learn more, the research team interviewed approximately 500 children and their parents attending a major specialist hospital in Cardiff, Wales and in Melbourne, Australia.

CAM was used by 41 percent of patients in Cardiff and 51 percent in Melbourne.

Powell’s group observed that Cardiff patients were less likely to use specific medicinal CAM, such as vitamins and minerals, herbs, or naturopathy, as well as non-medicinal CAM, such as chiropractic and therapeutic massage.

Only about one third of patients or their parents reported CAM use to their doctors. “The poor communication highlights the importance of local policy development,” the authors say, to promote a dialogue about alternative medicine between patients and their health care providers.

For the second article, Dr. I.J. McCann from University College London and Dr. S.J. Newell from St. James’s University Hospital in Leeds interviewed parents of 25 children with cerebral palsy, 25 with inflammatory bowel disease, 25 with cancer, and 25 healthy “controls” regarding CAM use.

They found that children with chronic illnesses were significantly more likely to use CAM than their healthy counterparts – 40 percent versus 12 percent. The sick children were more likely to also use complementary medications (21 percent versus 4 percent) – primarily Echinacea and Chinese herbal remedies.

The researchers also observed that 55 percent of parents whose children were using CAM had not discussed the issue with their doctor.

McCann and Newell suggest that doctors gain a working knowledge of complementary and alternative medicine, so they can discuss it with their parents.

Editorialist Dr. E. Ernst from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, UK, points out that although alternative therapy may be harmless, bad advice from a homeopath or naturopath, such as recommending against immunizations, “would almost inevitably cause serious harm.”

Ernst agrees that clinicians need up-to-date knowledge about which CAMs work, which don’t and which could prove harmful.

© Copyright 2007 Insight Journal Online Magazine.

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