Complementary, holistic, and integrative medicine: therapies for acute otitis media.

device. Introduction Acute otitis media (AOM) is diagnosed frequently in early childhood; its peak incidence is between 6 and 15 months of age. (1) Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis are the leading bacterial causes. Eighty percent of AOM cases resolve without treatment within 3 days. (2)(3) This high rate of spontaneous resolution along with variations in diagnostic criteria complicate studies of otitis media. Most cases of AOM are treated with antibiotics and pain relievers, but antibiotics may contribute to antimicrobial resistance or produce adverse effects (AEs) such as diarrhea. (4) These concerns, in part, have led some parents to turn to the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to treat childhood AOM. This review of published scientific literature examines some commonly used CAM therapies in the prevention and treatment of childhood AOM.