The role of complementary medicine in a pediatric day center in Germany

The role of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) in pediatrics has considerably increased in the last years. The knowledge about potential side effects and possible interactions with conventional drugs is still limited, and often pediatricians do not know whether their patients use CAM. This can be critical, as in order to diagnose and treat illnesses properly physicians need to know about the full extent of the self-administered therapy of their patients. Many studies have been conducted in other countries in order to assess the extent of CAM use and the types of substances that are consumed, but in Germany data in regard to pediatric interventions are lacking. We therefore developed a questionnaire to evaluate the frequency of CAM use among German pediatric patients.

115 parents visiting the pediatric day center in Epe between September and November 2011 responded to the questionnaire. The survey contains questions concerning the prevalence of CAM use and data about socioeconomic factors.

A total of 75.7% of all children enrolled in the study had already been treated with CAM by their parents, while only 43.6% of the parents knew that there can be interactions with CAM and prescribed drugs. In only half of the cases (50.6%) the pediatrician knew about the CAM usage of the child.

The frequency of CAM usage among children is higher than anticipated. It is essential that pediatricians know about possible interactions with conventional medicine, and it lies in their responsibility to include the question about CAM usage in their standard protocols.