Use of supportive anthroposophic medicine in a German integrative paediatric oncology centre
Der Merkurstab 2021;74(6):472-477.
Article-ID: DMS-21425-EN
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14271/DMS-21425-EN
Introduction: The only German centre for integrative paediatric oncology (PO) at the Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke offers integrative-anthroposophic supportive treatment in addition to conventional therapy.
Methods: All paediatric oncological inpatients between 1999 and 2008 were retrospectively documented. Patient and parent experiences were analysed by a modified ZUF-8 questionnaire.
Results: Among the 116 patients, 97.0% received some form of supportive integrative-anthroposophic therapies. Non-drug treatments are applied in 79.3% of patients and 94.0% of patients received anthroposophic drug treatment, whereby mistletoe therapy (75.0%) was most frequently used. Our survey revealed that parents were highly satisfied with the integrative PO treatment.
Conclusion: Integrative therapies are well integrated in the clinical routine of the integrative PO centre. Presented data make anthroposophic medicine more transparent and comprehensible to physicians, patients and parents, as well as to health professionals and service providers. Further prospective controlled trials are necessary to estimate effectiveness of such integrative approaches.
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