The Role of Drug Therapy in Alternative Healing Systems

In the course of American history there have been many varieties of “alternative” medical practice. They include folk medicine, domestic medicine, drugstore medicine, faith healing, mesmerism, and quackery, as well as more coherent systems such as physicomedical, herbal, botanic, reformed, eclectic, hydropathic, chronothermal, chiropractic, osteopathic, homeopathic, and naturopathic medicine. This paper discusses the development and current status of the art of chiropractic, as well as the medical philosophies of osteopathy, homeopathy, and naturopathy. Particular attention is focused on how the use of drugs and drug therapy is viewed by advocates of these alternative medical practices. Their demonstrated concern for the patient as a whole and their relationship to the holistic health movement is also considered.