Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
www.pharmpress.com/fact
Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 154
Little is known about the overall situation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany. In the framework of the Federal Health Monitoring conducted by the Robert Koch Institute on behalf of the German Health Ministry, we compiled a special Health Report on the topic of CAM. The main purpose of the report is to provide a clearer picture of the current CAM situation in Germany. Actual dates of medical and non-medical providers, trends of health expenditures, prevalence, and patterns of CAM utilisation are presented.
Different sources of information were used: literature, databases, representative surveys and postal interviews of different health-related institutions including health insurances and societies of the different CAM providers.
Particularly reliable and empirically founded databases for healthcare utilisation and prevalence of CAM in Germany are missing. In spite of shortcomings of existing databases, results of the report show evidence for a persistent and increasing presence of CAM in healthcare delivery in Germany over the last 30 years. Rough estimates for ambulatory costs of CAM practitioners amount to €2 billion, which accounts for at least one-tenth of the expenditures of the German compulsory sickness insurance (GKV). Acupuncture appears to be the single CAM treatment with the highest economic importance (€250 million in 2000).
The persistent and growing public demand for CAM, together with missing sound scientific CAM research, will affect and challenge healthcare delivery and the healthcare system as a whole for the foreseeable future, not only in Germany.
