Is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cost-effective? a systematic review

doi:10.1186/1472-6882-5-11

Table 5

Summary of the results of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) economic evaluations with exemplary study quality

	CAM Therapy Compared to Usual Care*	Patient Population	Form of Economic Evaluation	Health Effects of CAM Compared to Usual Care†	Cost of CAM Compared to Usual Care†
Liguori et al, 2000 [32]	Acupuncture	Patients with migraine	CEA	Better	Lower‡
Wonderling et al, 2004 [35]	Acupuncture	Patients with chronic headache	CUA	Better	Higher‡
Paterson et al, 2003 [34]	Acupuncture	Patients with dyspepsia	CEA	Similar	Similar
	Homeopathy		CEA	Similar	Similar
Korthals-de Bos et al, 2003 [27]	Manual therapy	Patients with neck pain	CEA CUA	Better Similar	Lower¶
Brefel-Courbon et al, 2003 [50]	Spa therapy	Patients with Parkinson's disease	CEA	Similar	Lower
Van Tubergen et al, 2002 [51]	Combined spa-exercise therapy	Patients with ankylosing spondylitis	CEA CUA	Better Better	Higher¶
Tusek et al, 1999 [53]	Complementary guided imagery	Cardiac surgery patients	CEA	Better	Lower
van Dixhoorn and Duivenvoorden, 1999 [54]	Complementary relaxation therapy	Patients with previous myocardial infarction	CEA	Better	Lower
Jacobsen et al, 2002 [55]	Complementary professionally-administered stress management training	Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy	CEA	Similar	Higher‡
	Complementary self-administered stress management training		CEA	Better	Lower‡
Franzosi et al, 2001 [25]	Complementary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids	Patients with recent myocardial infarction	CEA	Better	Higher
Smedley et al, 2004 [68]	Complementary preoperative and post operative oral nutritional supplementation	Patients undergoing lower gastrointestinal tract surgery	CEA	Better	Similar
Norris et al, 2004 [56]	Potassium-rich diet	Postoperative cardiac patients	CEA	Similar	Lower
Ryan and Gevirtz, 2004 [76]	Biofeedback-based psychophysiological treatment	Patients with "functional" disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome)	CEA	Better	Lower
Larsen et al, 2002 [82]	Complementary custom-made biomechanical shoe orthoses	Recent military conscripts	CEA	Better	Higher

Bold entries indicate that the CAM therapy was shown to be clearly superior to (dominate) usual care.

CEA = cost-effectiveness analysis; CUA = cost-utility analysis

* The use of the term "complementary" in this column indicates CAM therapies used in addition to usual care.

† If tests of statistical significance were performed, costs must be significantly higher or lower (and health effects significantly better or worse), or they were considered "similar."

‡ This study used both a societal and an institutional perspective, and the results were in the same direction.

¶This study used a societal perspective only. All other studies used an institutional perspective only.