Complementary therapies: the appeal to general practitioners

Abstract

Pragmatism--among consumers seeking a cure and among general practitioners seeking clinical results and more patients--is not a complete explanation for the burgeoning of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Western societies. Instead, this growth is substantially a result of pervasive and rapid social change, alternatively termed 'globalisation' and 'postmodernisation'. Globalisation and postmodernisation are creating a new social reality, of which a prominent characteristic is the proliferation of consumer choice. GPs are enmeshed in this social change and subject to the trend to greater choice--both their patients' and their own. On the one hand, GPs are reacting to social change as "economic pragmatists", responding to consumers' increasing demand for CAM. On the other hand, GPs themselves are acting as agents of social change by acknowledging the limitations of orthodox biomedical treatments and promoting CAM as part of their service delivery. Lack of scientific validation of CAM has not prevented GPs' use of such therapies. The phrase "clinical legitimacy" can be seen as a trump card that overrides "scientific legitimacy". It is the shibboleth of a postmodern movement among GPs towards healing and the "art" of medicine, as opposed to the "science" of medicine per se.