Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine

Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering alternative medical treatments. It publishes case reports, original research papers, and systematic reviews. It was established in 1995 by founding editor Larry Dossey[1] and is published bimonthly by InnoVision Health Media. The current editor-in-chief is Andrew W. Campbell.

Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
DisciplineAlternative medicine
LanguageEnglish
Edited byAndrew W. Campbell
Publication details
History1995-present
Publisher
InnoVision Health Media
FrequencyBimonthly
1.329 (2015)
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Altern. Ther. Health Med.
Indexing
CODENATHMF7
ISSN1078-6791
LCCN96641274
OCLC no.61311563
Links

Founding and content

When it launched, it was one of several journals about alternative medicine that were aimed primarily at doctors; it and similar journals carried advertisements for "unproven homeopathic products, shark cartilage, naturopathic remedies and other health food store items oriented toward cancer."[2] David Gorski on the website Science-Based Medicine pointed out that United States Senator Tom Harkin (who was instrumental in drafting the legislation that funded the Office of Alternative Medicine but later criticized the self-same office's reliance on evidence-based testing) wrote two different commentaries in the journal's inaugural issue:

In these two articles, Harkin basically introduced the new journal as a “journey—an exploration into what has been called ‘left-out medicine,’ therapies that show promise but that have not yet been accepted into the mainstream of modern medicine.” and explicitly stated that “mainstreaming alternative practices that work is our next step.” Unfortunately, he had a bit of a problem with the way medical science goes about determining whether a health practice—any health practice—works and railed against what he characterized as the “unbendable rules of randomized clinical trials.” Citing his use of bee pollen to treat his allergies, went on to assert, “It is not necessary for the scientific community to understand the process before the American public can benefit from these therapies....”

... Truly, this was a profound misunderstanding of how science works.[3]

Elsewhere on the website, Jann Bellamy, Florida attorney and founding member of the Institute for Science in Medicine,[4] described the journal as being "of dubious scientific rigor".[5]

Staff

The journal's founding editor-in-chief was Larry Dossey.[1] In 2004 Mark Hyman was appointed as chief editor, and in November 2008 David Riley, the journal's former medical editor, was appointed to the role.[6][7] The editorial staff changed in 2010, leading the editorial board to resign, but their names remained on the masthead as of 2013.[8] The editor-in-chief, as of 2013, was Andrew W. Campbell, and the journal's website listed him as practicing medicine in Texas, but in 2011 he was barred from practicing medicine in Texas and was apparently practicing in Florida.[8] The Texas Medical Board had taken repeated action against Campbell because he "relied on junk science, ordered inappropriate tests, and improperly diagnosed 'toxigenic mold exposure.'"[9]

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine,[10] Index Medicus/MEDLINE/PubMed,[11] Science Citation Index Expanded,[10] and Scopus.[12] According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 1.329.[13]

References
  1. Simpson, Richard K., Jr.; Bick, Dawn (1996). "Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine". JAMA. 275 (13): 1034. doi:10.1001/jama.1996.03530370072040.
  2. Cassileth, Barrie R. (1 June 1996). "Alternative and Complementary Cancer Treatments". The Oncologist. 1 (3): 173–179. doi:10.1634/theoncologist.1-3-173. PMID 10387984.
  3. Gorski, David (June 29, 2015). "NCCIH and the true evolution of integrative medicine". Science Based Medicine.
  4. "ISM - Our Fellows". www.scienceinmedicine.org. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  5. Bellamy, Jann (2015-12-24). "Guess who pioneered chemoprevention through diet?". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  6. "Homeopathy". NPR. 1998-01-12. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
  7. "Press release: Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine Names New Editor in Chief". Integrative Medicine - A Clinician's. November 11, 2008. Archived from the original on February 11, 2009.
  8. Beall, Jeffrey (26 December 2013). "A Medical Publisher with Some Problems". Scholarly Open Access. Archived from the original on January 9, 2015.
  9. Barrett, Stephen (24 January 2012). ""Toxic Mold" Guru (Andrew Campbell. M.D.) Surrenders Medical License". CaseWatch.
  10. "Master Journal List". Intellectual Property & Science. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  11. "Alternative therapies in health and medicine". NLM Catalog. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  12. "Content overview". Scopus. Elsevier. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  13. "Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine". 2015 Journal Citation Reports. Web of Science (Science ed.). Thomson Reuters. 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.