Considerazioni medico-legali sulle medicine non convenzionali

Alternative or non-conventional medicine are terms covering a variety of treatments, some going back centuries, which use methodologies different to those sanctioned by "official" medicine. After having been shunned by conventional medicine for a long period, these practices have attracted growing demand by the western public in recent decades. Their spread, however, is conditioned by an istorical context,characterised by the enduring silence imposed by "official" medicine, and their application has mainly been throug non-medical practitioners. The atmosphere of confusion surrounding the practice of non-conventional medicine has inevitabily attracted the attention of the scientific community, as well as national and international disciplinary bodies and legislatures. Over the years these institutions have sought to regulate the practice of non-conventional medicine, not without some difficulties. The Authors, after giving an owerview of the phenomenon and after analysing the reasons for the increasing demand for non-conventional medicine, summarize the position taken by different legislative and disciplinary bodies, both nationally and on a Europe-wide level.Particular attention is dedicated to the debate in Italy generated by the intervention of the National federation of the Medical Association together with the stance taken recently by the National Bioethics Committee. Following a brief summary of Italian legislation and jurisprudence, the Authors conclude with an analisys of the professional responsability of general pratictioners in the application of non-conventional treatement from a medical-legal point of view