Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Hansard, 6 July 1998)

§ Ms Jowell

As part of its policy research programme, the Department has commissioned a two-part study from the Medical Care Research Unit at Sheffield University. The first part was published by Sheffield University in August 1995 and concerned the scale and scope of access to complementary medicine practitioners via general practice. Copies of the report are available in the Library.

A report on the second part of the study is expected later this year. This part involves ten detailed case studies of different complementary medicine schemes within primary care and aims to assess the benefits and problems of each, and to make practical recommendations about the way forward for the potential integration of complementary medicine in primary care. Particular attention is being paid to the range of National Health Service complementary medicine provision that is currently available free at the point of access.

The NHS research and development programme is currently funding the following research projects: complementary therapies in the management of back pain; acupuncture for the management of pain in primary care; the effectiveness of different psychosocial interventions for patients and their families following cancer diagnoses and treatment; evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture in defined aspects of stroke recovery; multi-centre study of acupuncture for episodic tension headaches; a double blind, randomised, parallel group, study evaluating the efficacy of a homoeopathic remedy in asthma; the use of complementary therapies by women with breast cancer in South Thames region; art therapy as an adjunctive treatment in severe mental illness; non-pharmacological approaches to the management of irritable bowel syndrome; the efficacy of acupuncture versus local anaesthetic injection in the treatment of myofascial pain in the jaw muscles; assessing the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for pain relief in patients with chronic low back pain; the effect of abdominal massage on the bowel habit of adults with cerebral palsy; tea tree oil as an aid to fighting infection; reflexology in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome in a primary care setting.