Marginal to Mainstream

By Mary Ruggie

Book Overview

Millions of Americans are using complementary and alternative medicine and spending billions of dollars, out-of-pocket, for it. Why? Do the therapies work? Are they safe? Are any covered by insurance? How is the medical profession responding to the growing use of therapies that were only recently thought of as quackery? These are some of the many questions asked and answered in this book. It describes a transformation in the status of alternative medicine within health care. Paving the way toward legitimacy is research currently underway and funded by the National Institutes of Health. This research is proving the safety and efficacy of certain therapies and the harm or inefficacy of others. While some therapies will remain alternative to conventional medicine, others are becoming complementary, and still others are busting the boundaries and contributing to a new approach to health and healing called integrative medicine.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521542227
• ISBN13: 9780521542227
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

MARGINAL TO MAINSTREAM

A first rate study of a significant trend in American healthcare. Compelling reading.

Mary Ruggie's Wonderful Book

This book is an important companion piece to the current literature on safety and efficacy of complementary medicine. Mary Ruggie, a sociologist who has written extensively on comparative health systems, tackles the growing movement within hospitals to create centers for 'integrative care,' bringing together conventional and complementary medicine. She examines the research agenda driving these centers, as well as their successes and failures. I highly recommend this book to those interested in the field.