Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is very popular in the United States, Canada and other Western societies, and the number of patients seeking treatment by CAM practitioners is increasing. This trend also affects treatment-seeking patients with affective disorders. Many patients and mental health providers update their information and formulate opinions and decisions based on second-hand digested summaries and scientific reviews of the literature. This results in the proliferation of review articles and journals that are exclusively dedicated to reviews. Since most medical schools do not teach CAM and most continuing medical education programs still ignore these subjects, it is of interest to examine the reliability of reviews that claim to be “systematic” and not to take their procedures and conclusions for granted.