Counseling on complementary and alternative medicine

• Explore the patient's reasons for requesting complementary and alternative treatment.
• Discuss the risks and benefits of these treatments.
• Be open to integrating modalities with proven safety and efficacy.
• If unfamiliar with the product, the physician should offer to obtain more information and follow up with the patient. Alternately, the physician may direct the patient to reliable information sources (eg, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health), where the patient can obtain information directly.