What are Complementary Medicines? - Nursing Assignment Help

Assignment Task

1. What are complementary medicines? Do complementary medicines differ from regular pharmaceutical products? How? (consult the relevant literature).

Complementary medicine is often associated with nature and considered ‘natural’. It gives people the feeling of returning to nature and our traditional roots. The products within complementary medicine tend to be derived from plants and natural sources. People hold the belief that if it’s natural, it must be good for you. Pharmaceuticals medicine tends to have one active ingredient whilst CAM medicines can have up to 30 active ingredients and claim too assist with a variety of conditions because of this complexity in CAM it can be difficult to perform randomised trials.(The Science of Complementary Medicines, 2017)
The testing for pharmaceuticals is rigorous and must be registered withAustralian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) Pharmaceuticals are focused on treating an illness and moving people from sickness to average health whereas Complementary medicine is focused on helping people achieve optimal health.(The Science of Complementary Medicines, 2017)This means pharmaceuticals tend to focus on and separate the body into parts whereas CAM looks at the body as system working together.

2. Briefly introduce the hierarchy of evidence and discuss the relevance and challenges of this method of ranking sources of evidence for CMs.
The hierarchy of evidence is a way of being able to rank different forms of the best available evidence. The top of the pyramid is considered the best, whilst the bottom is considered the weakest form of evidence.It is relevant to CM as to be taken seriously CM needs to expand its levels of evidence. There is some debate as to whether it is possible for it to get to the level of evidence Pharmaceuticals has. There are two important factors to consider when evaluating CM efficacy, what is in it, which can be tricky as many herbal mixtures have lots of different active compounds at low concentrations, the other factor is how well it works in the body (Alan Bensoussan 2014). It can be difficult to create randomised control trials, being as herbal practitioners may use different herbal mixtures for different patients with the same ailment or adjust dosage or change treatment as they progress. Trials are normally just one treatment and then a placebo without a high level of flexibility that would be required for CM (Alan Bensoussan 2014). People argue that if there is any benefit it cannot be linked to one herbal as it’s a concoction and therefor you need to test each individual ingredient (The Science of Complementary Medicines, 2017).There is also the problem that herbal remedies can vary so often from batch to batch it can be hard to test their efficiency accuratelybecause of this inconsistency it can be difficult to predict if it will work in the same way every time for every person (Walters, 2014).. For these reasons it makes it difficult for CM to rise to the high levels the Hierarchy of Evidence requires.

3. Use the PubMed database in the UTas library to locate two published research articles from academic journals that focus on the product/medicine you have chosen. Both articles should focus on the use of the chosen substance for treating or addressing the same issue (for example depression, hypertension, muscle cramps etc). One of the articles should be of the highest level of evidence that you can find according to the evidence hierarchy, and the other should be an article that you consider is relevant and useful (but which is not level one evidence). Briefly discuss the key findings of the two articles and explain how you chose the lower ranked article.

Both of the articles 

4. Discuss the strength of the evidence base for the chosen substance based on the research you have conducted. Reflect on the impact that completing thisexercise has on your personal decision-making about using CMs. What, in your opinion, counts as legitimate evidence for you?
 

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