American Association for the Advancement of Science Symposium: The Science Underlying Complementary and Alternative Medicines

February 17, 2002
9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon
Boston, MA

Organizers

Stephen E. Straus
National Institutes of Health

Donald J. Krogstad
Tulane University

Sondra Schlesinger
Washington University School of Medicine

Description

Americans are setting aside prescription drugs and picking up bottles of herbs; they visit chiropractors and acupuncturists. A mix of ancient, empirically derived wisdom and slick marketing have found their place in the contemporary health care arena. Lacking a scientific tradition, these complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches offer promises but too little proof. As part of the "Achieving Health in a Connected World" track, this symposium will explore the breadth of CAM practices, their current appeal, and the strategy by which the NIH is bringing tools of exacting science to bear on some of the more important and most fascinating observations in the field. In the 3 years since creation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the NIH, its staff has spent an enormous amount of time convincing both sides in this debate that they and the NIH have a commitment to objectively evaluate this important area by providing support (with a budget for extramural research that is now approaching $100 million) for randomized clinical trials, as well as basic research, and endeavoring to enlist the brightest and most competitive investigators that can be identified to assist in this process. This approach is paying dividends, as is illustrated by the speakers here.

Speakers

Stephen E. Straus
Director
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
National Institutes of Health
Implementing a Research Agenda for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Jonathan Davidson
Duke University Medical Center
The NIH Hypericum Study in Depression

Steven Kliewer
GlaxoSmithKline
Xenobiotic Receptor PXR: A Molecular Target for St. John's Wort

David Spiegel
Stanford University
Believing Is Seeing: PET Reveals Effects of Hypnosis on Color Vision

Fabrizio Benedetti
University of Turin Medical School
The Neurobiology of the Placebo Effect in Sensory and Motor Systems

For More Information

Visit the meetings section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Web site at www.aaas.org/meetings.