Cost effectiveness of complementary medicines

The National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) commissioned Access Economics to undertake a cost effectiveness analyses of a number of complementary medicine interventions.A Reference Group selected five interventions, based on criteria including burden of disease and quality of evidence. These were:

■ acupuncture for chronic low back pain
■ St John’s wort for depression
■ fish oils for prevention of heart disease
■ fish oils for rheumatoid arthritis
■ Phytodolor for osteoarthritis

The study found that the first 4 of these were extremely cost-effective, with huge potential savings to the nation's medical costs. Read the whole report here.

There has since been much media interest in the report. Frances Gilham on the ABC's Drum Unleashed says the report was fairly and accurately compiled, but headline grabbing has distorted its findings. "Does it show that complementary medicines definitely save the Australian Government millions of dollars if used alongside, or instead of mainstream treatments? Not really. What was not widely reported in the media was that not all the complementary medicines looked at were in fact, cost-effective."