Schweiz Med Wochenschr Suppl. 1994 ; 62(): 18-27.

[Conventional or complementary medicine: what criteria for choosing do patients use?]

Schär A, Messerli-Rohrbach V, Schubarth P.

Only a few studies have investigated in depth the motives behind the choice of conventional or complementary medicine. While some studies document failures or general mistrust of conventional medicine as the main reasons for turning to complementary medicine, others conclude that the decision to try alternative medicine is not necessarily due to disappointment with conventional medicine but rather an endeavour to do everything possible for one's own health. Patients regard complementary medicine indeed as a complement. Longer-lasting consultation and a better doctor-patient relationship are occasionally mentioned as favourable aspects of complementary medicine. Other motives are a critical attitude to modern civilization and the growing symbolic value of health. The choice may be related to the nature of the disease. Depending on the patient population involved, complementary medicine is used for either more difficult or simpler cases. As a general rule it is the chronic problems that are dealt with by complementary medicine. Users of complementary medicine cannot be regarded as a homogeneous group. Nevertheless, one Swiss study concludes that users of complementary medicine tend to be female, with higher education, from the upper middle class and aged between 30 and 50. They have postmaterialistic value priorities, holistic interpretative models of health and disease, and want to share in decision-making on treatment questions. Approaches and contexts of individual studies differ and the study populations of individual investigations are sometimes questionable. This means that some results are to be treated with caution. The literature under review rarely refers to cultural and social aspects as possible factors, and processes are likewise rarely investigated. Only one study presents behaviour in sickness as a social process which reveals how people perceive, interpret and respond to health problems. In conclusion, the sociological theories and findings involved in the entire question area are briefly outlined.