Bergh, Anna and Lund, Irene and Bostrom, Anna and Hyytiainen, Heli and Asplund, Kjell
(2021).
A Systematic Review of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine: "Miscellaneous Therapies".
Animals. 11
, 3356
[Research article]
![]() |
PDF
687kB |
Abstract
Simple Summary Complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM) is commonly used in animals. However, there is limited knowledge of how the methods affect the animal. Therefore, this study reviews the scientific literature of 24 different CAVM therapies used in cats, dogs, and horses. Three core bibliographic sources were used. Relevant articles were assessed for scientific quality, and information was extracted on study characteristics, species, type of treatment, indication, and treatment effects. Of 982 unique publications screened, 42 were eligible for inclusion, representing nine different CAVM therapies, which were aromatherapy, gold therapy, homeopathy, leeches (hirudotherapy), mesotherapy, mud, neural therapy, sound (music) therapy, and vibration therapy. For the other 15 predefined therapies, no study was identified. The risk of bias was assessed as high in 17 studies, moderate to high in 10, moderate in 10, low to moderate in four, and low in one study. In those studies where the risk of bias was low to moderate, there was considerable heterogeneity in reported treatment effects. Therefore, the 24 CAVM therapies do not have scientific documentation of sufficient quality to draw clear conclusions regarding their clinical effect. There is an increasing interest in complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM). There is, however, an uncertainty of the efficacy of these methods. Therefore, the aim of this systematic literature review is to assess the evidence for clinical efficacy of 24 CAVM therapies used in cats, dogs, and horses. A bibliographic search, restricted to studies in cats, dogs, and horses, was performed on Web of Science Core Collection, CABI, and PubMed. Relevant articles were assessed for scientific quality, and information was extracted on study characteristics, species, type of treatment, indication, and treatment effects. Of 982 unique publications screened, 42 were eligible for inclusion, representing nine different CAVM therapies, which were aromatherapy, gold therapy, homeopathy, leeches (hirudotherapy), mesotherapy, mud, neural therapy, sound (music) therapy, and vibration therapy. For 15 predefined therapies, no study was identified. The risk of bias was assessed as high in 17 studies, moderate to high in 10, moderate in 10, low to moderate in four, and low in one study. In those studies where the risk of bias was low to moderate, there was considerable heterogeneity in reported treatment effects. Therefore, the scientific evidence is not strong enough to define the clinical efficacy of the 24 CAVM therapies.
Authors/Creators: | Bergh, Anna and Lund, Irene and Bostrom, Anna and Hyytiainen, Heli and Asplund, Kjell | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title: | A Systematic Review of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine: "Miscellaneous Therapies" | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Animals | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||||
Volume: | 11 | ||||||
Article number: | 3356 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 27 | ||||||
Publisher: | MDPI | ||||||
ISSN: | 2076-2615 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 403 Veterinary Science > Clinical Science | ||||||
Keywords: | aromatherapy, gold therapy, homeopathy, leeches, mesotherapy, mud, neural therapy, music therapy, vibration therapy | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-115220 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-115220 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
| ||||||
ID Code: | 26671 | ||||||
Faculty: | VH - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science | ||||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Clinical Sciences | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 10 Jan 2022 13:25 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 10 Jan 2022 13:31 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page