COMPLEMENTARY ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN UAE

Complementary Alternative Medicine in UAE

Complementary Alternative Medicine in UAE

CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review

This literature review shall be for the sole purpose of review all past and current literature relating to the study topic (CAM use). Based on this focus, this chapter shall make use of secondary research data. Secondary data refers to all previously existing data or research information collated from researchers or studies whose purposes are exclusive of the current study. Irrespective of this, these data can be used in a current study (Stebbins, 2001; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The secondary data utilised in this review were collected from a wide array of academic sources like journals, reports, books, statistics, documents and academically relevant websites. In the course of gathering these resources from the internet sources, the researcher made use of some specific keywords in searching for relevant academic material. These keywords are: CAM, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Alternative medicine, complementary medicine.

To begin this literature review, it is imperative to state the definition Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM). The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) provides the definition that CAM is a collection of various health care practices, and treatments that are not currently perceived or widely held as belonging to conventional medical practices. Based on this definition Conventional Medicine is defined as medical systems and healthcare practiced by medical doctors and other allied health professionals such as nurses and therapists among others. Conventional Medicine is also referred to as orthodox medicine or western medicine. The researchers' keen interest in CAM and its effect on mental healthcare use has evoked the researcher to search for literature in the following online data bases; PUBMED, PUBMED CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) library and the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Register. Search was made using the following terms; CAM and Mental Health, UAE Mental Health, Alternative Medicine in the UAE

The literature reviewed in this section will focus on the current status of CAM use in general, and specifically in the treatment of mental conditions, and the general health practitioners' attitudes and beliefs towards CAM use, and where applicable, compared with findings in UAE. This review will not attempt to address efficacy of the various modalities, methodological artifacts and/or defects, cognitive biases or placebo effects, in CAM use and/or studies.

There is deficiency in studies that have investigated CAM use in UAE (Osman & Afifi 2010; Shorofi & Arbon, in press; Okasha 2003; Fahmy et al 2010), however, the nation's strategic location has the potential to promote global health by sharing the experience of dealing with health problems characteristic of a desert environment, while learning from the experiences of other nations (Tar-Ching, 2010). The rapid urbanisation, patterns of food consumption, lack of exercises, sedentary lifestyle, scarcity of public transport, high rates of consanguinity, extended families, and impaired social cohesion, have increased mental conditions prevalence (Osman & Afifi 2010; Peeke & Frishet 2002) and added likelihood for use of therapies such as acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, herbal medicine, ...