Icelandic Committee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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Icelandic Committee on Complementary and
Alternative Medicine

• Gudmundur Sigurdsson M.D.

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The members of the committe

• Gudmundur Sigurdsson MD (medical doctor)
• Á. Svava Magnúsdóttir (massage therapist)
• Dagný E. Einarsdóttir LCHP (homeopath)
• Einar Magnússon CandPharm (pharmacist)
• Haraldur Ólafsson professor emeritus
  (anthropolog)
• Nanna Friðriksdóttir RN, MSc (clinical nurse)
• Sólveig Guðmundsdóttir Cand Juris (lawyer)

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Questions re CAM?

• What is CAM
• Available education and training for CAM
• Credentials of CAM teachers/trainers
• Recognition of CAM practitioners, rules and
  regulations
• Cooperation between CAM practitioners and
  licenced health care professionals
• Do licenced health care professionals utilize CAM

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Questions re CAM continued

• CAM and Value Added Taxation
• Effectiveness of CAM
• Side effects of CAM
• Attitude of the public towards CAM
• Use of CAM by the public
• How should increasing use be met
• Licencing of CAM practitioners

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What is CAM

• a broad domain of healing resources that
  encompasses all health systems, modalities, and
  practices and their accompanying theories and
  beliefs other than those intrinsic to the
  politically dominant health systems of a
  particular society or culture in a given
  historical period.
• 
  Cochrane Collaboration

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Cam treatments available in Iceland I

• Chiropractic, 4
• Osteopathy, 2
• Homeopathy, 25
• Herbal medicine, 5
• Acupuncture, 3

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Cam treatments available in Iceland II

• Alexander technique, 5
• Aromatherapy, 25
• Bach and other flower remedies, 30
• Cranio-sacral therapy, 100
• Massage, 200
• Reflexology, 500
• Shiatsu, ?
• Rolfing, 1
• Nutritional medicine, 10

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Cam treatments available in Iceland II

• Hypnotherapy, ?
• Meditation, ?
• Healing, ?
• NLP, Neuro linguistic programming, 35
• Yoga, ?

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Cam treatments available in Iceland IIIa

• Anthroposophical medicine, 0
• Ayurvedic medicine, 0
• Naturopathy, ?
• Traditional Chinese Medicine, 0

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Cam treatments available in Iceland IIIb, No. of
therapists

• Crystal therapy, 40-50
• Iridology, 10
• Kinesiology, 90
• Chakra balancing, 40

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Use of CAM in Iceland 1985-2000
Director General of Public Health
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Communication between physicians and patients re
CAM

• Close to ninety percent of physicians in Iceland
  reported that they never asked patients about
  unconventional therapies and the majority that
  they were seldom or never told about such
  therapies by patients.
• Sigurdsson 1984

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Conclusion

• The use of CAM in Iceland is widespread and
  increasing.
• There is a need for better regulation of CAM
  providers.
• Licenced health care providers need to better
  informed about CAM
• There is a need for more open communication
  between patients and health care providers about
  CAM