What kind of Complement Alternative Medicine (CAM) treatment is offered by physicians?
Figure 10: Special therapies provided by physicians with CAM (Marstedt Gerd Table 4),
One Private Health Insurance, SECURVITA BKK, well known for alternative treatment, covered a variety of treatment including initial and follow up of Homeopathic treatment, Acupuncture, Haematogenous oxidation therapy (HOT), Ozon-blood therapy, UVB-Eigensolution therapy and others[i]. That means, more than one third of all CAM treatments, see Figure 10, were homeopathic treatment[ii] among physicians with additional education in CAM (Marstedt Gerd Table 4). Therefore, medical sociological researchers recognize that the growing popularity of alternative healing methods is the first indication of an “erosion of medical care structures” (Kahrs M).
Do experiences with CAM have influence on the patient’s acceptance of the suggested treatment method of the general practitioner? Marstedt et all in 2002 (Marstedt) found the following relationship: While only 23% of those who have no personal experience are looking for information regarding to illnesses, 52% of the people with many experiences with CAM methods would try to get more information regarding to illnesses. Similarly, only 17% of those who have no personal experience had declined a treatment method suggested by general practitioner, 52% of the people with many experiences with CAM methods had declined a treatment method suggested by general practitioner.
[i] Other therapies includes painting therapy (2.2%), rhythmical massage according to Wegman (2.7%), Talking Gestalt (1.1%), Accupressure (1.6%) and others (5.7%).
[ii] either initial or follow up