Aromatherapy, kinesiology, lithotherapy… Unconventional care practices, in full explosion, are neither supervised nor monitored, denounces the Order of Physicians in a report published on Tuesday, alerting to “therapeutic drifts” which have become “increasingly topical. more important, even several times a day”.
“Today, the supply of NHPs (unconventional care practices) being exponential, it is necessary to sort out practices that are dangerous to the health of patients and those that may be of interest in supporting the patient and restrict them to the sole area of well-being, ”explains the Order of Physicians.
Not “scientifically recognized by conventional medicine”
According to a survey carried out by Odoxa for Unadfi (National Union of Associations for the Defense of Families and the Individual) in May, 51% of French people have recourse to NCPs linked to manual manipulation (such as kinesiology or chiropractic), 48 % to “traditional medicine” (such as homeopathy, “traditional Chinese medicine” or cupping), 45% to plants and 39% to “energies”.
The Order recalls that the PSNC are “neither recognized, on a scientific level, by conventional medicine, nor taught during the initial training of health professionals”. This lack of supervision produces dangerous situations for the people who have recourse to it: the Order mentions the “illegal practice of medicine” of certain practitioners, the “therapeutic drifts” which can in particular lead to the discontinuation of care and a loss of opportunity for sick people, or even “sectarian aberrations”.
On the rise since Covid
On this last point, the Order cites Miviludes, an interministerial mission responsible for combating sectarian aberrations, according to which 70% of the reports received in the field of health relate to unconventional care practices. “The Order of Physicians has been in great demand on this subject of PSNCs for years, but it has really increased since the Covid”, explained to AFP Dr Claire Siret, in charge of the file within the Order. . This document must “raise health professionals’ awareness of these practices”, she insists.
Dr Siret is particularly concerned about the “entryism of certain practices at the university” and also wishes to question the deans of the faculty on the proposal, outside the medical fields, of a “university degree in anthroposophical medicine” (not validated scientifically, note). This report is published on the eve of the first meeting of the support committee for the supervision of non-conventional health practices (PNCS), under the aegis of the Ministries of Health and the Interior, which will bring together authorities health like the Medicines Agency, Miviludes or the No Fake Med collective.