ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2025
Defining complementary and alternative medicine : Revisiting the Debate and Plea for a Strategy Based on Plausible Effectiveness.
Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Arabic Mothers' Experiences Using Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Discourse about Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is also controversial in several respects, including terminology. Understanding and using the term 'CAM' precisely remains necessary in some discussions. This article provides a contribution to a terminologically more reflected debate about CAM. Analytical methods are applied to analyse 'CAM' conceptually: reasons to define CAM are discussed, common definitions are critically analysed in light of argumentative plausibility, and typical conceptual needs in the debate about CAM are described. Based on this, an evidence definition of CAM is sketched. Complementary and alternative medicine is typically defined by positive attributes or (more usefully) by unconventionality. While the latter provides a viable definitional strategy, several questions remain regarding the logic and applicability. Attempts to improve CAM definitions should consider (a) presenting necessary and sufficient conditions, (b) separating 'complementary', 'alternative' and 'integrative', (c) understanding 'CAM' relative to specific diseases and (d) being explicit about possible changes of the CAM status. These requirements are used to develop a definition of CAM centring around the notion of probable specific effectiveness-a definitional strategy that might solve flaws in the current CAM discourse by spelling out some of the reasons why certain practices are not part of conventional treatment. The example of the cancer drug Imatinib serves to demonstrate the usefulness of focusing on plausibility of effectiveness instead of conventionality. Defining CAM in light of evidence properties might improve the debate. Independent of the terminological strategy pursued, articles and guidelines on CAM should at least reflect the implications and pros and cons of their own terminological decision. An evidence definition should be developed in detail.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.