Aims

Lectures are focused on developing critical evaluation and on giving information about a topic (Complementary and Alternative Medicines or CAM) which is currently not included in the official training in western medicine.The objectives are : 1. To develop critical standards for regarding conventional as well non conventional medicines 2.To analyse reasons why CAM are successful among medical doctors as well as in the general population. 3. To demonstrate that the success of CAM reflects a partial failure of scientific (classical) medicine. 4. To show the limitations and drawbacks of the scientific approach to disease. 5. To examine the ethical aspects of the CAM practice

Main themes

- Anthropological perspective concerning medicine and disease: prominent paradigms in our society. Philosophical conceptions of health and disease. Limits of scientific criteria in medicine. - Sociological Approach: field practices, teachings and their relationships with universities in Europe and in the world. How patients and orthodox physicians perceive these treatments? How practitioners in non conventional medicine (CAM) justify their practice of acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy and chiropractic (the most prominent CAM in Belgium)? - Experimental evaluation and clinical studies. - Is there a classification of CAM? Are the basic diagnostic and therapeutic approaches different? General overview of CAM and specific information about herbal medicine (phytotherapy). - General assessment and practical guidelines.

Content and teaching methods

Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) are discussed from an anthropological, sociological and scientific perspective.They are also discussed from a practical perspective; what attitude to develop for the patient and the medical practitioner ? How CAM could be included in Evidence-Based Medicine and Integrative Medicine (guidelines for MD) Students are confronted with general practitioners (MD) who have chosen an alternative or complementary medical practice.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Students (individually or as a group, depending on the importance of the subject) develop a file directly related to the course (e.g. collection of data from scientific references, critical assessment of clinical cases or analysis of practitioners' interviews).

Other credits in programs