OBJECTIVES Biofield energy healing involves controversial concepts, and although numerous controlled trials have evaluated the effects, little attention has been paid to the phenomenon from the perspective of the therapists themselves. DESIGN Qualitative research. SETTINGS/LOCATION Large Midwest metropolitan area. Interviews were generally conducted in the therapists' place of business. S...

OBJECTIVE To develop a consensus-based list of inappropriate practices in prescribing for elderly people. DESIGN Mail survey of a 32-member national panel. SETTING Academic medical centres across Canada. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-two specialists selected arbitrarily, including 7 clinical pharmacologists, 9 geriatricians, 8 family practitioners and 8 pharmacists. OUTCOME MEASURES Consensus tha...

In recent years, it has become common practice, in the treatment of headache, to use alternative methods, both alone and in association with drug therapies. Alternative therapies would appear to be more indicated in certain subjects: patients opposed to pharmacological treatments, those showing low tolerance of drugs or with a history of drug abuse, and those presenting medical contraindication...

The increasing interest in effort towards creating alternative therapies have led to exciting breakthroughs in the attempt to bio-fabricate and engineer live tissues. This has been particularly evident in the development of new approaches applied to reconstruct corneal tissue. The need for tissue-engineered corneas is largely a response to the shortage of donor tissue and the lack of suitable a...

OBJECTIVE To identify the main characteristics of classic migraine, with specific regard to diagnostic criteria for manual therapy practitioners, including chiropractors and osteopaths. METHOD Ten case studies on migraine were reviewed for the symptoms and clinical features. RESULTS The majority of cases reviewed as classic migraines were in reality not correct diagnoses in accordance with ...

Fibromyalgia (FM) is an incurable common syndrome of non-articular origin, and with no effective treatment by now. A great deal of research has sought to assess the efficacy of different therapies, especially non-pharmacological and low-cost ones, in the reduction of the intensity of symptoms. Despite the availability of a wide range of alternative therapies nowadays, there is little scientific...

The detailed reporting of any research intervention is crucial to evaluate its applicability into a routinely practice-based context. However, it has been estimated that, especially in non-pharmacological interventions, the published literature typically includes incomplete intervention details. In the field of manual medicine, where interventions are delivered with a high degree of individuali...