We all could build pretty successful practices by dispensing little else. But since controlled clinical trials generally have not been performed, the problem is how to distinguish the psychotherapeutic benefit of treatment from the actual effects of the spec ific treatment. So it's becoming more important for practicing physicians to have some familiarity with the alternative modalities and to try to figure out what advice to give people. We should want to know whether our treatments are safe and effective, regardless of whether they're natural or synthetic. Perhaps that very contentiousness makes research universities the natural arena for alternative medicine to respond to the challenge of science.
Alternative medicine meets science.
Eisenberg DM, Davis RB, Ettner SL, et al.