The Escalating Cost and Prevalence of Alternative Medicine

The public appears to have ambivalent standards for alternative therapies but wishes to be empowered with accurate information to facilitate self-prescription, and expenditure on alternative therapies was nearly four times the public contribution to all pharmaceuticals.

Abstract

Extrapolation of the costs to the Australian population gives an expenditure on alternative therapies in 2000 of $AUD2.3 billion and for the U.S. population an annual expenditure of $US34 billion. In Australia this represents a 120 and 62% increase in the cost of alternative medicines and therapists, respectively, since 1993. In 2000 expenditure on alternative therapies was nearly four times the public contribution to all pharmaceuticals. The public appears to have ambivalent standards for alternative therapies but wishes to be empowered with accurate information to facilitate self-prescription. The public health ramifications of an expanding alternative medicine industry are great.