This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Epilepsy  • Complementary and Alternative Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Joseph Scheller, MD

Arch Neurol. 2005;62:1471-1472.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

There is very little information available in the medical literature regarding the benefits or lack thereof of alternative treatments for epilepsy. These treatments are offered by herbologists, homeopaths, nutritionists, practitioners of Oriental medicine, aromatherapists, chiropractors, and others. Their recommendations are often used by patients who have epilepsy. In a recent California survey, 56% of adults with epilepsy were found to use vitamin or mineral supplements, herbal products, or natural remedies (garlic and others).¹ In a survey of parents who had children with epilepsy, chiropractic and massage therapies were commonly used as well.²

Alternative therapies are not thoroughly studied for 3 reasons. First, practitioners of traditional Western medicine are skeptical of the alternative treatments’ chances of providing demonstrable benefits. Second, few organizations or corporations in the alternative-therapy sphere have the financial means to organize and implement scientific trials to attempt to prove the effectiveness of alternative therapies. Companies . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Author Affiliation: Department of Neurology, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Use of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Epilepsy: Cause for Concern
Phillip L. Pearl, Emily L. Robbins, Heather D. Bennett, and Joan A. Conry
Arch Neurol. 2005;62(9):1472-1475.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Complementary and Alternative Therapy for Epilepsy: Much Less Than Meets the Eye
E. S. Roach
Arch Neurol. 2005;62(9):1475-1476.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Complementary and Alternative Therapy for Epilepsy: Much Less Than Meets the Eye
Roach
Arch Neurol 2005;62:1475-1476.
FULL TEXT