Familiarization with complementary medicine: report of a new course for primary care physicians

A course entitled "Familiarization in Complementary Medicine" has been established at Exeter University. The syllabus of the course is presented, together with significant issues for debate that were raised by the attending primary care physicians. The delegates started with a positive but questioning attitude toward complementary medicine (CM) and acknowledge that they gained useful information, leading to increased confidence in discussing CM with patients. The course to a large extent met their needs and expectations. Benefits and draw-backs of integrating CM within general practice were explored. The main advantage of CM, apart from the potential intrinsic value of the techniques themselves, was identified as the time to establish a good therapeutic relationship with the patient. The particular concerns about CM that were expressed by the doctors included poor dialogue with CM practitioners, doubts about competence, and lack of readily identifiable and recognized qualifications. The risk of holding out unrealistic hope of cure was their greatest concern, however, especially if patients were thereby denied an effective orthodox treatment. The course was popular and will be repeated on a regular basis; similar courses for other health professionals including nurses are being planned.