Alternative Medicine and Rehabilitation

Book excerpt: Wainapel and Fast, both with Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center in New York, point out the irony of the speciality of physical medicine and rehabilitation having been considered a form of alternative medicine 50 years ago. Rather than being a practice manual or comprehensive survey of alternative medicine, this volume reflects the evolution of alternative medicine to an integrative/complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) seeking to combine the best of both worlds. Most of the 19 contributed chapters offer evidence-based treatments of such adjuncts to rehabilitation medicine for neurologic and other disorders as chiropractic, massage, yoga, meditation, biofeedback, hypnosis, acupuncture, nutritional therapy, and magnet therapy. Others discuss recent NIH-funded research, specific CAM treatment approaches, payment for CAM services, and professional literature issues. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR