Complementary Therapies In Neurology: An Evidence-based Approach

Drawing upon the knowledge of expert contributors, Complementary Therapies in Neurology: An Evidence-Based Approach provides an introduction to CAM therapies and how a clinician might use them in the treatment of specific neurologic diseases. Informally divided into two sections, the book explores empirically testable theories about the mechanisms of action involved on CAM modalities. The first section reviews commonly used CAM therapies that have some scientific basis and rationale for their use in neurological disorders including botanicals, manipulative and body-based therapies, mind-body therapies, and alternative medicine systems. The editor has placed discussions of spirituality and placebo effect in separate chapters. His choice of topics is based on the amount of evidence available and how often the therapies are used. The second section supplies an evidence-based overview of the clinical applications of these therapies organized by neurological disease states. Discussing common neurologic problems such as headache, neck and back pain, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and dementia, this section follows the structure of conventional neurology textbooks and reviews the relevant evidence in a conventional manner. Written by physicians for physicians, this book is the first choice for information on alternative and complementary therapies in clinical neurology. The book provides current scientifically based evidence on which CAM therapies are useful, which ones may be useful, and which ones are not useful.