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- Soleil Surette, MLIS*
- Sunita Vohra, MD, MSc*,†
- *CARE Program, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- †Edmonton General Hospital, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Author Disclosure
Ms Surette has disclosed no financial relationships relevant to this article. Dr. Vohra has disclosed that she has grants as principal investigator or co-investigator from Health Canada, SERIN-ETD Acupuncture Research Fund, Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Women & Children's Health Research Institute, National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), EU Commission, Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation, and Alberta Health Services. This commentary does contain a discussion of an unapproved/investigative use of a commercial product/device.
- ASD:
- autism spectrum disorder
- CAM:
- complementary and alternative medicine
Editor’s Note:
Whether you believe in the effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) or not, some of your patients and their parents do. As you read this article, please note the number of patients who use CAM. Joseph A. Zenel, MD Editor-in-Chief
Educational Gap
Health care professionals do not ask consistently about complementary, holistic, and integrative medicine use by their patients, yet it is important to do so because patients and families often pursue this course of therapy for specific medical conditions and do not volunteer this information.
Introduction
No thorough assessment has been made of the literature on the use of pediatric complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) since 1999, when Ernst published a systematic review on this topic. (1) As part of its horizon scanning, the Complementary and Alternative Research and Education (CARE) program (www.care.ualberta.ca) tracks the use of CAM in the pediatric literature and, as of March 2011, has identified 160 English-language studies dating back to 1982. Utilization literature can be a valuable source of information for determining what CAM practices and products warrant further pediatric research. This article explores the 5 most studied pediatric specialty populations: oncology, asthma, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), gastrointestinal diseases (eg, inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome), and pediatric emergency care. The Table lists these studies, with references.
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Articles on the 5 Most Studied Pediatric …
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