Field of medicine: General internal medicine, primary care, and alternative medicine.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: General practitioners, family physicians, primary care internists, internal medicine subspecialists, and counselors who work with patients who have chronic medical conditions often treated by alternative healers.

Purpose: To familiarize health care providers with complementary medical treatments that their patients may be using or from which their patients might benefit.

Content: This handbook in the Oxford General Practice Series is divided into three sections. The first reviews the public's increasing interest in complementary medicine and research that has been done in the field. The second contains information on common treatment methods (including acupuncture, homeopathy, and manipulation) and environmental, herbal, mind-body, and nutritional medicine. The third reviews the medical conditions commonly treated by alternative providers, such as back pain, cancer, the chronic fatigue syndrome, the irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, and the premenstrual syndrome.

Highlights: Many tables and figures concisely convey information. Pertinent historical and current references from authoritative journals are included. Most chapters have appendices to guide the reader to other, related sections within the book. The authors are from the Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine in the United Kingdom.

Limitations: The information on training and professional organizations at the end of each chapter is limited to groups in the United Kingdom.

Context: This book reviews the public's interest in and perception of alternative medical techniques, the research that has been done in the field, the most common complementary medical methods, and the medical conditions most often treated by nontraditional health care providers. Rationales for, techniques for, contraindications to, and possible complications of treatment are discussed.

Reviewer: Kristi S. Dickson, MD, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Commentary: This is a useful resource given the increasing interest in and use of complementary medical techniques by the general public. It is a valuable reference for the primary health care provider and can help educate the traditional practitioner about nontraditional medicine.