Discussion Post: CAM, Patient Education Ethics & Informed Consent
Depending on the definition of CAM and the number of patients included, the prevalence of CAM use is estimated to be up to 90% among patients with cancer. Research found that 96% of patients used non-pCAM and 4% of patients used pCAM in a single comprehensive cancer center.
In this study, a survey was used that was previously administered by Naing et al among 309 patients in a phase I clinical trials program. It was found that there were differences in the patterns of CAM use between the studies. Naing et al showed that 52% of patients used one or more CAM. Of these patients, 77% used pCAM and 71% used non-pCAM. The types of CAM most frequently used were vitamins (70%), prayer (57%), and herbal products (26%). Data revealed that prayer was the most common type of CAM (96%). Our patients used less pCAM (4%), with the most frequently used pCAM being herbal products (2.9%). Although the methodology was the same, the study populations were different at the two centers. The previous study was performed among patients with cancer in phase I clinical trials
In several studies, prayer has been grouped with spiritual healing and other relaxation techniques, which are forms of mind-body medicine. Tippens et al revealed that defining prayer as a CAM potentially inflates the statistics of CAM use. The term prayer may be insufficient to distinguish between the various forms of spiritual healing used by practitioners and the common understanding of the word as a religious term. It was shown that 62% of 31,044 adults in the United States used some form of CAM. However, when prayer was excluded from the analysis, only 36% of adults were found to use CAM therapies.
• What are the percentages of people using CAM with prayer and those who do not?
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.