Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) [a subset of PubMed]

Consists Currently, there are over 220,000 citations in the CAM subset of PubMed (from 1966 forward.

CAM on PubMed contains citations to journal articles related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It was developed jointly by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to help people search easily for journal articles related to a variety of CAM therapies, approaches, and systems – from acupuncture, to herbs, to traditional oriental medicine.

NCCAM defines complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as those healthcare practices not currently considered an integral part of conventional medicine. It covers a broad range of healing therapies, approaches, and systems. Some examples of CAM include acupuncture, herbs, homeopathy, chiropractic, hypnosis, and traditional oriental medicine. A therapy is called complementary when it is used in addition to conventional treatments. It is often called alternative when it is used instead of conventional treatment. Most often, people who use CAM therapies are seeking ways to improve their health and well-being and to relieve symptoms and side effects of conventional treatment.