Methodological Challenges in Research on Complementary Therapies

Abstract

Assessing the effectiveness, safety, and mechanisms of action of complementary and alternative therapies through well-designed research is often not a simple matter. Although for some complementary treatments, such as nutritional supplement preparations, the conventional double-blind, placebo-controlled experimental trial may be adequate for measuring efficacy, the treatments and healing techniques of many complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies may not easily fit the methods and vocabulary used to evaluate conventional medical treatments (e.g., Richardson, 2002). Answering questions about CAM may demand rethinking traditional research strategies. Lewith, Jonas, and Walach (2002) remind us that any area of medical inquiry requires a balanced research strategy combining multiple approaches to gathering evidence, each with different strengths, limits, costs, and usefulness. Research designs and methods include outcome studies, clinical and other observational methods, laboratory techniques, randomized controlled trials, qualitative research methods, health services research, and reviews, including metanalyses. Although demanding no less rigor than conventional clinical research, research on CAM therapies may require new, more skillful, and more varied techniques and strategies to successfully answer questions about efficacy, effectiveness, and mechanism. Complementary Health Practice Review is planning an upcoming issue devoted to identifying and finding creative solutions for research challenges in complementary health care techniques and practices. We are encouraging the submission of manuscripts in the areas of experimental design, mixed quantitative and qualitative designs, translational research strategies, questionnaire development, biostatistical methods, and innovative techniques for measuring the mechanism of action. Complementary Health Practice Review’s overall mission is to publish scholarly research on complementary and integrative practices, promoting discussion across disciplinary, organizational, and specialty boundaries. We hope that this special issue on