Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 131
To explore the subjective experience of users of complementary medicine using an ideographic approach.
In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 frequent users of complementary medicine. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed to analyse transcripts for recurrent themes.
The results indicated that complementary medicine served a variety of functions for these patients beyond the relief of symptoms. The practitioner–patient relationship was perceived as an important component of the therapeutic process, irrespective of the actual efficacy of the treatment itself. Complementary medicine also provided an important framework for making sense of illness, particularly through its holistic approach, which was seen to provide deeper level explanations of health and illness. Treatment was perceived as an important means of coping, not only in relation to health but also in dealing with wider life stressors. Participants reported changes in their relationship to self and others, particularly in terms of enhanced self/other awareness. All patients expressed some dissatisfaction with allopathic medicine but continued to use it alongside complementary therapies.
This exploratory study demonstrated how treatment was perceived as having a long-term impact on several different levels of patients’ lives. It is therefore important that these wider effects are taken into account when evaluating complementary medicine in order to reflect accurately patients’ experiences.
