Complementary and alternative therapies (CAM) are frequently used in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases and the acceptance is high especially in paediatric and cancer patients.
CAM usage seems to be higher during the palliative phase of the conventional treatment with homeopathy as the most often used CAM method (32%).
The Department of Haematology/Oncology at the University Children’s Hospital Bern (HONK), has adopted an integrative approach in addition to state of the art oncological care and implemented a collaboration with the Institute of Complementary Medicine IKOM, University of Bern, over the past 10 years. Stakeholder satisfaction with this service was high.
The collaboration between HONK and IKOM established iHOM in paediatric oncology in Bern.
In this setting, iHOM was a safe and supportive additional treatment for various indications during the conventional cancer care.
Data concerning frequency of consultations, pathologies, follow-ups and clinical results were reviewed and summarized using descriptive statistics.
94 paediatric oncologic patients consulted for iHOM.
Indications for the complementary treatment was wide-ranging.
No interactions with conventional treatment and no adverse side-effects of iHOM were detected.
Researchers presented a descriptive data and report on 4 exemplary patients treated with additional individualized homeopathy (iHOM) in addition to standard treatment for mucositis, permissive tissue infection, insomnia and affective dysfunctions.
All four patients clinically improved in an immediate temporal relationship to the additional treatment.