Many Who Have Brain Tumors Use Alternative Treatments

Many patients who have incurable brain tumors utilize alternative treatments, including taking vitamins and using homeopathy, on top of their standard treatments, according to a study published in the December 14, 2010 issue of Neurology®.

Nearly forty percent of patients with brain tumors who took part in the study utilized alternative treatments, such as homeopathy, taking vitamin supplements, and psychological therapy.

The study included 621 patients who had incurable grade II to grade IV gliomas who filled-out a questionnaires regarding their use of alternative treatments. Alternative treatments were defined as methods or compounds not generally utilized in routine clinical procedure, and which are not scientifically tested.

Younger patients, women, and those who were more highly educated had a higher likelihood of using alternative therapies than older people, men and those who were less educated.

Answering from a compiled list of reasons why people utilized alternative therapies, the most popular answers were "to support conventional therapy," "to build up body resistance" and "to do something for the treatment by myself." The least popular answers were "because I am afraid of the conventional methods" and "because the physicians don't have enough time."

Of the patients who utilized alternative therapies, nearly forty percent used homeopathy, almost thirty percent took vitamin supplements and about thirty percent utilized various types of psychological therapies.