Government Report Backs Alternative Medicine
Critics: White House Commission Offers False Hopes

The herb Hypericum perforatum, or St. John's wort, is considered by some to be a cheaper and "natural" alternative treatment for depression. Photo courtesy TAHFIN

March 25, 2002 -- A White House commission released a report Monday promoting the wider use of alternative medicine therapies, such as acupuncture and dietary supplements. The report, which took nearly two years to complete, has angered many scientists. They say there's little hard evidence to back the conclusion that more Americans would benefit from alternative care. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports for All Things Considered.

The debate over alternative medicine is a long and bitter one. Opponents say the commission was stacked with supporters and heard mostly from believers. They say alternative medicine often offers false hopes. Proponents say mainstream medicine doesn't want the competition.

Even within the commission there is division. Dr. Joseph Fins, a medical ethicist at Cornell University, co-authored a statement saying that the report went too far.

First and foremost, the commission calls for more research. But the amount of research called for would strip money away from more promising areas, says Fins. And the report refers to complementary and alternative medical approaches as a whole. Fins would have liked to have seen differentiation between therapies that have some clinical evidence and others that have been shown not to be effective.

Commission chair James Gordon says that was not the task of the commission: "There are thousands and thousands of therapies. We simply could not, or shouldn't, have sat in judgment on each one of those therapies."

The commission didn't put a price tag on its recommendations for training and research, but it did call for a central coordinating office. A handful of Republican and Democratic senators on Capitol Hill are long time champions of alternative medicine -- several of their offices said today that they'll be studying the commission report carefully.



In Depth

 Browse for other NPR stories about alternative medicine.

Other Resources

• Read the full report at the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy's Web site.

• The National Council Against Health Fraud, a consumer protection agency that focuses on health misinformation, is asking the White House to reject the commission's report. Read why at its Web site.

• Read NCAHF's analysis to the commission's draft report.

• In 1998, Congress created an agency within the National Institutes of Health to support the study of and provide information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Visit the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's Web site for CAM-related fact sheets, research news and clinical trial information.

• Read about acupuncture, dietary supplements, St. John's wort, and CAM's role in cancer treatment at the NCCAM's Web site.

• Read an NCCAM fact sheet on how to evaluate medical Web sites.

• Search for more CAM-information on the National Library of Medicine's Web site.

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