INTEGRATING HOMEOPATHY AND OTHER CAM MODALITIES INTO EUROPEAN HEALTHCARE Why integration and what is integration in the first place?

There is a worldwide rapid increase of interest in, demand for, and use of complementary, alternative or unconventional medicine (CAM), by the general population. Patients are becoming more and more worried about issues such as the side effects and toxicity of many conventional drugs –in fact a major cause of death and hospitalization–, the growing resistance to antibiotics, and the inability of conventional medicine to cure chronic diseases. Also, a considerable number of patients find CAM modalities to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life. Many mainstream general practitioners share their patients’ concerns about conventional medicine, and are either referring to or practising some of the more prominent and well-known forms of CAM. Many doctors believe that these therapies are useful or effective.