Overall, they are positive, at least at the University of Minnesota.

Faculty members from departments who were directly involved in teaching at the college of pharmacy were included. Students were 4th-year doctor of pharmacy students less than a month away from graduation.

More than 80% of faculty and students believed?

  • CAM should be included in the curriculum.
  • CAM knowledge is important to them.
  • Health professionals should be able to advise patients about CAM.

Despite positive attitudes?

  • 16% of faculty and 30% of students believe that CAM results are usually due to the placebo effect.
  • More than half indicated a strong desire to see CAM therapies validated in a scientific manner.

Regarding the place of CAM modalities in healthcare, only chiropractic was considered mainstream by more than 50% of the faculty and students.

CAM identified as moderately or highly effective by more than half of the faculty and students

  • Acupuncture
  • Chiropractic
  • Herbal medicine
  • Massage
  • Nutritional supplements
  • Prayer/spiritual healing

Therapies most frequently perceived by faculty as being ineffective

  • Aromatherapy (19%)
  • Bioelectromagnetic therapies (26%)
  • Homeopathy (26%)

A majority of students did not judge any CAM as ineffective.

More detailed results can be found here.

4/14/07 09:39 JR

Hi, I’m JR

John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.