By Niall Hunter-Editor

More research is needed to test to the effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in epilepsy, according to doctors at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

The doctors, writing in a scientific journal, say CAM has become much in vogue and the trend of using CAM for treating epilepsy does not differ from that in other medical conditions.

Alternative therapies used in epilepsy include mind--body medicines such as reiki and yoga, biologic based medicines such as herbal remedies, dietary supplements, homeopathy and manipulative-based medicines such as chiropractic.

The doctors say that in the available literature, there is a sense of the merit of these therapies in epilepsy, but there is a paucity of research in these areas.

"Individualised therapies such as homeopathy and reiki cannot be compared with medicine in a conventional pharmaceutical model. Hence, many studies are inconclusive. In a science of double-blind, randomised controlled trials, appropriate designs and outcome measurements need to be tailored to CAM."

They say major effort needs to be put into future trials, with the assistance of qualified CAM professionals to ensure conformation to their therapeutic principles.

The article is published in the journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports.

See irishhealth.com's Epilepsy Clinic at:

http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/epilepsy/