Lack of standards in informed consent in complementary and alternative medicine.

Objectives: To examine whether U.S.-based professional complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) organizations have explicit informed consent policies.

Design And Setting: Phone survey conducted in July-August 2003.

Results: Data were obtained from 37 out of a total of 39 eligible and accessible organizations representing 19 commonly used provider-administered CAM techniques (95% response rate.) Only 21 organizations (57%) had any informed consent policy and standards, whilst only six (16%) mandate their clinician members to routinely obtain an informed consent.

Conclusions: We found no consistent standards with respect to the practice of informed consent across a broad range of CAM practices. CAM information that is not communicated appropriately or is otherwise unavailable to patients during the decision-making process may increase the potential for healthcare oversights and adversity.