Putting alternatives to the test
Physicians
may be too skeptical and many patients may not be skeptical enough when
it comes to alternative and complementary therapies. Because few of these
regimens have undergone rigorous scientific testing, it’s hard to
know who’s right.
A new research
center at Emory aims to help change that. A five-year, $3.2 million grant
from the NIH is funding Emory’s Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (CAM) in Neurodegenerative Diseases, one of 12 CAMs in the nation.
Mahlon DeLong,
chair of neurology and principal investigator for the center, says the
center’s goal is to examine the effectiveness, safety, and validity
of CAM practices as well as the physiologic or psychologic mechanisms
underlying them.
A 1998 national
survey concluded that about 69% of Americans spent more than $27 billion
on alternative therapies in 1997—more than out-of-pocket spending
for all US hospitalizations that year.
“Unfortunately,
little has been done to determine whether these alternative approaches
really work,” says DeLong.
Studies in
the Emory CAM will focus primarily on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
diseases. Now ongoing are studies on transcranial magnetic stimulation
to relieve depression from Parkinson’s, use of valerian to treat
sleep problems in Parkinson’s, and the effect of Tai Chi and Qi Gong
on motor problems associated with Parkinson’s.
(BACK TO TOP)
Responding to environmental disasters
Responding to environmental disasters Emory’s School of Medicine has a newly certified two-year program teaching physicians how to prevent and prepare for environmental disasters. The medical toxicology fellowship, directed by Dr. Brent Morgan in emergency medicine, is one of only 19 in the country and involves collaboration with Grady Hospital, the Georgia Poison Center, and the CDC. The fellowship was created because of the confluence of Emory’s medical expertise and other surrounding medical resources in Atlanta as well as concerns about the potential for environmental disasters and chemical terrorism attacks. (BACK TO TOP)
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