J. Barnes et al., Articles on complementary medicine in the mainstream medical literature - An investigation of MEDLINE, 1966 through 1996, ARCH IN MED, 159(15), 1999, pp. 1721-1725
Citations number
10
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Objective: To investigate the growth of interest, if any, in complementary
or alternative medicine by the professional scientific community from the n
umber of MEDLINE-listed and clinical trial-type articles for January 1, 196
6, through December 31, 1996.
Methods: Systematic literature searches of the MEDLINE database, using the
expanded terms "alternative medicine," "traditional medicine," "acupuncture
," "homeopathy," and "chiropractic," were conducted in January 1998 to eval
uate the number of all articles. The number of clinical trial-type articles
on the above was obtained by conducting searches for those indexed as 1 or
more of the following publication types: clinical trial; clinical trial ph
ase 1, 2, 3, or 4; controlled clinical trial; metaanalysis; randomized cont
rolled trial; and limited to "human" trials only.
Results: Articles indexed as alternative medicine formed a small proportion
(0.4%) of the total number of MEDLINE-listed articles throughout the perio
d studied. From 1966 through 1996, the total number of articles listed in M
EDLINE rose significantly to a peak of 400000 additions per annum in 1996 (
r = 0.97; P < .001). By contrast, the number of articles indexed under alte
rnative medicine rose progressively only from 1972 through 1986 and since t
hen has been relatively stable at around 1500 additions per annum. For this
period, the proportion of clinical trial-type alternative medicine article
s was low (mean, 2.1% per annum) but increased significantly from 1987 thro
ugh 1996, reaching around 10% of the total in 1996 (r = 0.79; P < .001). Pa
tterns of growth in the number of publications for individual therapies hav
e varied during the period studied, and clinical trial-type articles form o
nly a small part of any increase.
Conclusions: Interest in and awareness of complementary medicine among orth
odox health care professionals has increased in the past 30 years. The incr
ease in the number and proportion of reports of clinical trials indicates a
n increasing level of original research activity in complementary medicine
and suggests a trend toward an evidence-based approach in this discipline.
The cumulative number of clinical trial-type articles is small, however, an
d more high-quality original research in complementary medicine is required
.