ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews alternatives to conventional medical diagnosis. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) sets itself apart with radically different philosophies and ideas. A variety of entities under the umbrella term of complementary, integrated, and alternative medicine may be engaged by the general public. Generally, these alternative approaches have not been verified by traditional scientific methods. An important corollary of this is that if the approach itself is not verifiable, then the associated diagnostic and therapeutic approaches may be unsafe. Complementary medicine has been defined as the "diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention which complements mainstream medicine by contributing to a common whole, satisfying a demand not met by orthodoxy, or diversifying the conceptual framework of medicine". Integrated or integrative medicine is an approach that attempts to combine conventional medicine with CAM. The chapter presents a case example of Sam McAvoy, a 60-year-old construction worker who lives in a small rural town.
