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Preferred term

complementary medicine  

Definition

  • The use of drugs and treatments not accepted by orthodox medicine as scientific, with the aim, not of replacing orthodox forms of treatment, but of supplementing them. The main users are the middle classes, the well educated and more commonly women, usually in response to chronic conditions (Cant, S. and Sharma, U. (1999) A New Medical Pluralism: Complementary Medicine, Doctors and the State. [Source: The Sage Dictionary of Health and Society; Complementary Medicine]

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URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/complementary_medicine

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