The use of unconventional therapy in children with allergic diseases
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Abstract
Background: Complementary and alternative therapies are commonly used in the treatment of chronic, severe diseases such as allergies.
Aim of study: To analyzed complementary and alternative therapies in allergic diseases among children.
Methods and study group: The research was conducted among parents of paediatric patients from allergology outpatient department. They were asked if they have been using complementary and alternative therapies. 377 parents of 211 boys and 166 girls filled in the survey. Main diagnosis among children was: 82 – atopic dermatitis, 145 – allergic rhinitis, 96 – asthma, 54 – food allergy.
Results: In 180 (48%) cases unconventional medicine was ever introduced. 60 of them (33%) were treated together with conventional methods. This kind of procedures were used in 62% (51/82) children with atopic dermatitis, 33% (48/145) with allergic rhinitis, 46% (45/96) with asthma and 66% (36/54) with food allergy. In 53 (29%) cases parents noticed improvement of health conditions during unconventional treatment, in 49 (27%) patients nothing positive was observed. The reason for starting those procedures was: in 84/180 children no effects during treatment prescribed by pediatrician, in 37/180 by allergist, in 62/180 improvement for friends child, in 28/180 safety, in 24/180 efficacy, in 8/180 lower cost, in 6 patients allergist opinion. The most common were: bioresonance, homeopathy, antifungal therapy, elimination of „worms”, bioenergotherapy, Chinese/Tibetan medicine, acupuncture, acupressure/reflexology.
Conclusions: Complementary and alternative therapies are very popular in the treatment of allergic diseases in group of children. The most popular among them are bioresonance therapy and homeopathy. Doctors should have had knowledge about these procedures.
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Copyright: © Medical Education sp. z o.o. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
Address reprint requests to: Medical Education, Marcin Kuźma (marcin.kuzma@mededu.pl)
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