CAM and Informed Consent

Paper Summary:

The paper explores the literature that discusses the legal issues involved in the issue of informed consent in any type of medicine, whether conventional or alternative. The paper also examines the lack of formal oversight authority in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). The most prominent factor in this literature review was a lack of academic articles on informed consent and CAM in peer-reviewed journals. The paper explains that this demonstrates that CAM still has failed to find acceptance in mainstream medicine, regardless of the growing trend towards its use.

Outline:
Legal Issues
Lack of Standards
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The topic of informed consent is important for any portion of the legal profession. Informed consent assures that patients remain an integral part of the decision-making process. The field of complementary and alternative medicine has remained on the fringes of the medical community. This branch of medicine has avoided standardization until recently, when a hostile legal climate has forced it to adopt many of the components of formal medicine. Informed consent is an important part of this standardization process."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute. 2008. Ayurvedic Herbalists Code of Ethics. [online] Available at: http://www.ayurveda-california.com/ayurvedic_distance_education_berkeley/Buddhist_five_precepts/American_Herbalist_Guild_ethics.htm [Accessed March 26, 2008]. Primary source. Found by Google search.
• Caspi, O. & Holexa, J. 2005. Lack of standards in informed consent in complementary and alternative medicine. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 13 (2), 123-130. [online] Available at: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/161/19/2288 [Accessed March 26, 2008]. Primary Source. Science Direct Database online.
• Drieman, B. 2006. Informed Consent. Journal of the American Dental Association, 137 (3),288. [online] Available at: http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/137/3/288-a?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&minscore=5000&resourcetype=HWCIT. Secondary source. Found by searching "find similar articles in Jacobson article. [Accessed March 26, 2008].
• Ernst, E. 2004. Balanced judgments on complementary/alternative medicine. Is informed consent necessary? Rheumatology 2004; 43 (5), 666. [online] Available at: http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/43/5/666 [Accessed March 26, 2008]. Primary Source: found through Google search.
• Ernst, E. 2003. Regulation of complementary and alternative medicine. Focus Alternative and Complementary Therapies. 8, 291-2. [online] Available at: http://www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/fact0803a02t01.htm [Accessed March 26, 2008]. Primary source. Found by Google search.

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