[Factors determining the selection of treatment options of complementary and alternative medicine]

Complementary and alternative medicine have undoubtedly been gaining ground on the healthcare market, thus the vital question arises why patients choose these treatments, oftentimes at the cost of discontinuing the Western medical therapy.

The aim of the authors was to investigate and scrutinize factors leading to the utilization of various alternative medical services.

The basis of this qualitative research was medical anthropological fieldwork conducted at a clinic of Traditional Chinese Medicine including participant observation (355 hours), unstructured interviews with patients (n = 93) and in-depth interviews (n = 14).

Patients of alternative medical systems often do not receive a diagnosis, explanation or cure for their illness from Western medicine, or they do not agree with what they are offered. In other instances, patients choose alternative medicine because it exhibits a philosophical congruence with their already existing explanatory model, that is, previous concepts of world, man or illness.

A particular therapy is always part of a cultural system and it is embedded in a specific psycho-social context, hence choice of therapy must be interpreted in accordance with this perspective.