Ethical issues in research in complementary and alternative medicine.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has grown dramatically in recent years, as has research into the safety and efficacy of CAM treatments. Minimal attention, however, has been given to the ethical issues relating to research on CAM. The needs of public health and safety demand rigorous research evaluating CAM therapies, adhering to the same ethical requirements applied to all clinical research, and randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials should be used to assess the efficacy of CAM treatments whenever feasible and ethically justifiable. The seminar also explored the legitimacy of providing CAM and conventional therapies that have been demonstrated to be effective only by virtue of the placebo effect.