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Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 6 (2009), Issue 4, Pages 503-506
doi:10.1093/ecam/nem142
Scleroderma, Stress and CAM Utilization
1Center for East-West Medicine, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA
2Center for East-West Medicine, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 2428 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 308, Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA
Received 8 July 2004; Accepted 6 September 2007
Copyright © 2009 Ka-Kit Hui et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease influenced by interplay among genetic and environmental factors, of which one is stress. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is frequently used to treat stress and those diseases in which stress has been implicated. Results are presented from a survey of patients with scleroderma. Respondents were a convenient sample of those attending a national conference in Las Vegas in 2002. Findings implicate stress in the onset, continuation and exacerbation of scleroderma. The implication is that CAM providers may be filling an important patient need in their provision of services that identify and treat stress and its related disorders.