Alternative Treatments for HIV: Nationwide Survey Seeks Users

A well-designed study of complementary and alternative medicine is now recruiting 1500 persons who are using alternative medicine in HIV/AIDS treatment -- regardless of whether or not they are also using conventional medicines in addition. If you are HIV-positive, at least 18, able and willing to give informed consent and independently complete study forms, and a U.S. resident, you are eligible for this study.

Participants will fill out a 25-page questionnaire every six months for at least a year. A small compensation ($10 or $15) will be provided for each completed questionnaire.

About the Study

This survey is using a well-known technique called "outcomes research," to see if the use of certain treatments is associated with better or worse medical outcomes than others. Outcomes research uses repeated health status evaluations in ordinary care settings. This methodology has both advantages and disadvantages vs. randomized controlled trials. Unlike randomized controlled trials, outcomes research does not find a causal relationship, so it cannot provide definitive proof that a treatment is beneficial. But it can identify an association of good or bad results with a particular therapy, producing prospective, systematically collected information which can be helpful for designing trials, as well as for making treatment decisions.

Outcomes research examines medical care as it is actually delivered, avoiding both the ethical concern about randomizing patients to predetermined protocols, and also the difficulty in generalizing from highly selected cohorts and artificial protocols to patients in general practice. But on the other hand, outcomes research does not have the internal validity of randomized controlled trials, and often needs larger numbers of patients to obtain statistically significant results.

This alternative-treatment survey is being conducted by Bastyr University, an accredited multidisciplinary natural medicine university, with funding from the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine. The principle investigator is Leanna Standish, N.D., Ph.D., of the Bastyr University AIDS Research Center. The trial was designed primarily by Carlo Calabrese, N.D., M.P.H., who is widely recognized as an expert in outcomes research in alternative medicine. It is the only large-scale study of alternative medicine for the treatment of HIV/AIDS now taking place in the U.S.

For more information, or to volunteer, call 800/475-0135. Physicians and other practitioners who are interested in working with this study can call Project Coordinator Cherie Reeves, 206/517-3578. More information is also available on the World Wide Web, http://www.bastyr.edu/research/recruit.html.