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Biomedicine controls seizures for many children with epilepsy – but not all. In such cases, parents struggle in the wake of various structural, cultural, and corporeal ruptures. Continued use of ineffective medications can lead, iatrogenically, to frightening and serious symptoms and debilitations whose effects, along with those of uncontrolled seizures, ripple outward in challenging ways. Using data from 25 Californian (US) parents who favored providing cannabis to their ill children to meet the iatrogenic burdens of biomedical epilepsy treatments in 2015, well before cannabis's present destigmatization, this paper explores parental refiguration of the effects of clinical iatrogenesis as inevitable – and as productive of evidence necessary to finding better options. In attending to the generative dimensions of iatrogenesis, this paper strives to help clarify the dilemma for parents who critique biomedicine's isolating, materialist, and sometimes apparently haphazard approach to their children, but depend on biomedical and associated systems for their family's well-being nonetheless. Along the way, this paper underscores raced and gendered dimensions of their experiences. Rather than rejecting biomedicine, most hung on tightly, blaming the uncontrolled seizures and their aftermath on a lag in 'the science' and pointing to the cultural idea that every child is unique in explaining their own children's non-responsiveness to treatment thus far. Likewise, they worked to determine effective cannabis regimens with scientised rigour. However, in the end – and in keeping with a culture of (male) Whiteness – stigmatisation, fatigue from chronic care provision, faith in science, and a need for a biomedically-mediated form of social belonging underwrote a majority desire for cannabis's incorporation into the official biomedical pharmacopeia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of placebo has had a long history in medicine, and has evolved over time with the introduction of randomised controlled trials for testing health treatment, the increasing research done around the psychotherapies, the development of complementary and alternative medicine approaches to health, as well as the conceptual contributions from academic disciplines like psychology and anthropology. In recent years, discourses about placebo have pursued a number of key directions, and the current review paper explores these developments. For example, psychology has looked at placebo in terms of classical conditioning and the role of anxiety. Anthropology on the other hand has focused on the role of meaning and ritual in the placebo effect and psychotherapy research has encouraged an examination of the effects of the therapeutic relationship. Our review paper concludes by outlining directions ahead for future scholarship and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction This paper discusses why advanced cancer patients use Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and how they communicate about this with their physicians. While several studies have examined the extent of CAM use by advanced cancer patients, the reasons for CAM use have been addressed much less. Approach Using peer-reviewed online journal databases, we conducted a search for current literature dating back to 2000 related to the use of CAM in palliative cancer care. These databases included: Pubmed, Academic Search Complete, SocIndex, Healthsource, CINAHL, Alt Healthwatch, and Academic Search Elite. Keyword combinations that were used are: Complementary medicine OR alternative medicine OR holistic medicine OR unorthodox medicine OR unproven medicine (AND) cancer OR oncology OR advanced cancer OR tumor OR malignant (AND) palliative care OR palliative OR hospice (AND) decision making. Results Seven studies were found addressing the use of CAM by advanced cancer patients. The most common reasons for CAM use in advanced cancer patients are symptom relief, looking for a cure and survival/lengthening life. The studies varied widely in terms of how CAM was operationalized, as well as in terms of type of cancer diagnosis, socio-demographic characteristics, sampling strategy, and study design (mostly surveys). Generally patients would like their health care providers to initiate the discussion about CAM use and ask them about CAM use in a non-judgemental manner, listening carefully to their experiences and needs. Discussion It is important for physicians to be prepared to discuss CAM use with their patients and to have a basic understanding of the most common types of CAM. Patients often do not seem as concerned about evidence as health care providers. It would be to the patients' benefit if integration of CAM modalities in palliative care becomes more readily available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through interviews with users and providers of anti-ageing medicine in Australia as well as the analysis of various internet sites, anti-ageing clinics, journals and magazines dealing with anti-ageing medicine, this paper will argue that the anti-ageing industry in Australia is an example of how ‘mediascapes’ operate, seeking in this case to replicate the American model while developing a more localized practice meeting local needs, cultural orientations and regulatory frameworks. The products being studied here include some which have been on the market for many years in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) industry, but have only recently been rebranded as ‘anti-ageing’. These include vitamins, anti-oxidants, supplements such as beta-carotene, selenium and coenzyme Q10, homeopathic products, exercise and diet programs. Other products that have been recently labelled as ‘anti-ageing’ and are included in this study are hormone therapies, testosterone, melatonin, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). These products have been previously trialled and used in the treatment of medical problems such as heart disease, sexual dysfunction, cognitive and memory loss problems, and hormonal deficiency. Current medical research on stem cells, particularly embryonic stem cells, has also fallen within the realm of anti-ageing treatments developed from this research area and available primarily in countries with limited regulation and control over the use and availability of embryonic stem cells in the context of the private anti-ageing clinic. The differences and similarities between the practice of anti-ageing medicine in Australia and in America highlight current tensions and correspondences in the manner in which ageing is being constructed, managed and experienced. They are indicative of the impact that social policy directions, regulatory frameworks and economic policies have on the way in which ageing individuals and society at large approach the experience of old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of complementary and alternative interventions by health care clinicians, in particular social workers, as a method to relieve chronic conditions, such as depressive symptoms in older adults, is addressed in this paper. Psychotherapy, pharmaceuticals, and other medical interventions are often enhanced when accompanied by alternative practices like yoga. Practitioners can learn to use these methods and/or work with a clinician who has a particular alternative skill set. Bringing complementary interventions into one's practice assures that older adults are receiving “best practices.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the primarily sociological and anthropological literature that discusses the current challenges posed by the 'modernisation' of herbal knowledge through its co-option by biomedicine. Through this examination we identify evidence for a trend which suggests this co-option is a tactical strategy to preserve biomedical dominance through control of the knowledge base of 'other' medicines. Having identified such a trend, we examine the invention of the term 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM), suggesting that the universalising of non-orthodox health care practices under this construct is a problematic symptom of biomedical co-option. We then go on to argue that a possible outcome of biomedical co-option is an epistemological bifurcation between 'traditionally' orientated and 'biomedically' informed herbal knowledge and practice, a phenomenon whose implications demand serious recognition and analysis, not only in the academic literature, but also in wider public debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]