Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2006; 11: 10
To systematically summarise prospective, controlled, cost-effectiveness studies of complementary therapies carried out in the UK.
A search of electronic databases up to October 2005 and including only prospective, controlled, cost-effectiveness studies of any type of complementary therapy for any medical condition carried out in the UK. Data were extracted independently by two authors for the main health benefit outcomes and cost.
Six cost-effectiveness studies of CM in the UK were identified: four of spinal manipulation for back pain, one of acupuncture for chronic headache and one of acupuncture for chronic back pain. Four of the six studies compared the complementary therapy with usual conventional treatment in pragmatic, randomised clinical trials without sham or placebo arms. Main outcome measures of effectiveness favoured the complementary therapies but effect sizes were small and of uncertain clinical relevance. The same four studies included a cost-utility analysis in which the incremental cost per quality adjusted life year was less than £10 000. The complementary therapy represented an additional healthcare cost in five of the six studies.
The limited data available indicate that the use of complementary therapies in the UK usually represents an additional cost to conventional treatment. Estimates of the incremental cost of achieving improvements in quality of life compare favourably with other NHS treatments but because the specific efficacy of the complementary therapies for the indications remains uncertain, and the studies did not include sham controls, the estimates obtained may represent the cost-effectiveness of non-specific effects associated with the therapies.
