NEW YORK, Sep 21 (Reuters Health) -- Many arthritis sufferers supplement their prescription medication with alternative therapies without telling their doctors -- a potentially unsafe practice, note US researchers.
Some drugs for the type of arthritis known as rheumatoid arthritis suppress the immune system, and may interact in a harmful way with alternative remedies, say researchers reporting in Tuesday's issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Approximately two thirds of the 232 arthritis patients surveyed by Dr. Jaya K. Rao of Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues reported use of an alternative remedy, including herbs, chiropractor visits, high-dose vitamins, and elimination diets.
The researchers described this finding as "remarkable given that our definition of CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) excluded biofeedback, exercise, meditation, or prayer, which were considered types of CAM in other investigations."
More than half of the alternative remedy users did not tell their doctors, and most cited their doctors' failure to ask rather than their own fear of disapproval as the reason why, the investigators found.
Of the 45% who did inform their doctors of alternative therapy use, "surprisingly," 71% reported doctor support for its continued use, they noted.
Of the respondents who relied on a single alternative method, 73% said that chiropractors were helpful, 75% cited spiritual healers, 21% copper bracelets, and 22% vinegar preparations.
The people participating in the study had suffered from arthritis for an average of 10 years, and over half of them reported experiencing severe pain. In addition, nearly half of the respondents reported turning to alternative therapy "because their prescribed medications were ineffective," Rao and colleagues note.
Common arthritic conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia have no known cause or cure, and are characterized by chronic pain that can impair daily functioning.
"The lack of cure for and the unpredictable nature of some chronic illnesses may lead to a sense of personal helplessness in some patients; these patients may consider complementary and alternative medicine to be a 'risk-free supplement' to conventional therapy. For other patients, the costs or side effects of conventional therapies may be additional concerns," write Rao and colleagues.
Consumers had approximately $27 billion in out-of-pocket expenses for alternative therapies in 1997, a figure comparable to out-of-pocket expenses for physician services, according to the report.
