Patient use and assessment of conventional and alternative therapies for HIV infection and AIDS

To investigate the extent of recourse to alternative therapies among 184 HIV-positive patients who continued to attend conventional medical clinics. The study describes the specific alternative therapeutic modalities that were more commonly sought by our respondents, and provides data on the subjective assessment of the efficacy of both conventional and alternative therapies.

Demographic and behavioral information were obtained from standard, self-administered, anonymous questionnaires distributed at three HIV clinics in the Philadelphia area.

Forty per cent of patients reported having used alternative or complementary therapies. Forty-two per cent of respondents who had been enrolled in clinical trials had used alternative therapies at some stage. Recourse to such therapies was significantly associated with risk-group affiliation, duration of seropositivity, and sex. The decision to use alternative therapies was not significantly related to age, race, education, religion or severity of symptoms. Of respondents using alternatives, 10% expected the unconventional treatments to cure their HIV infection, and 36% expected them to delay the onset of symptoms.

The results of this study will contribute to conventional practitioners' understanding of those unconventional explanations and therapies for HIV infection that many patients find relevant and meaningful. Health-care workers should be aware of their patients' interest in participating in decisions about their treatment--whether alternative or conventional--and be prepared to work with them to achieve satisfactory outcomes.