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Complementary Health Practice Review
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Quackery Masquerading as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in Patients With Epilepsy

Sangeeta Sharma, MD

Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences, PO Box 9520, Delhi 110095, India, sharmasangeeta2003{at}yahoo.com

Sukriti Joshi, MSc

Suman Khushwaha, DM

Kiran Bala, DM

Patients suffering from chronic diseases like epilepsy often use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as first-line treatment because of myths, superstitions, and stigma attached to the disease. The present study reports on 108 patients with epilepsy presenting to an allopathic hospital with uncontrolled seizures, status epilepticus, or drug toxicity. Blood samples of these patients taking unlabeled pills from a CAM provider specializing in the treatment of epilepsy contained prescription antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) such as carbamazepine, phenytoin, valproic acid, and phenobarbitone. Serum samples in all but 5 patients demonstrated presence of one or more AEDs. Most of the patients had serum levels of these AEDs either in the subtherapeutic or in the supratherapeutic range. The authors alert clinicians that the patients resorting to "safe" or "natural" CAM may end up receiving modern prescription medicines from unauthorized CAM providers in toxic or subtherapeutic doses.

Key Words: complementary and alternative medicine • epilepsy • masquerading • adulteration • antiepileptic drugs • seizures

Complementary Health Practice Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, 139-143 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1533210107302778
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