[The situation of complementary medicine in Germany]

Abstract

With the amendment of the German Medicinal Products Act in 1976 and the inclusion of naturopathy and homeopathy into the German Medical Licensure Act from 1988, the German government set up a comparatively favorable framework for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). But no comprehensive integration into the academic operating systems followed, because the universities as well as the legislative body seemed to have no further interest in CAM. Therefore, research projects in the field and suitable professorships had and still have to be financed by third-party funds. Notwithstanding the success of several CAM-projects, no sustainable development could be established: When the third-party funding runs off and the protagonists retire the institutional structures are supposed to vanish as well. Although the public demand for CAM is high in Germany, the administration detached homeopathy as a compulsory subject from the German Medical Licensure Act in 2002 and restricted severely the refunding of naturopathic medicines by the statutory health insurance in 2004. Moreover, the trend for CAM bashing takes root in the media. Unfortunately the CAM scene does not close ranks and is incapable to implement fundamental data collection processes into daily clinical routine: A wide range of data could justify further efforts to the government as well as to the scientific community. To say something positive, it must be mentioned that the scientific standard of CAM research is high for the most part and that third-party funded projects deliver remarkable results ever and on.