What are the types of alternative medicine doctos prescribe?
The term 'alternative medicine' encompasses any form of plant-based or natural therapy that is used for therapeutic purposes, and therefore comes in many forms.
There are many different medicinal products available in Australia that differ in active ingredients, concentrations, format, quality, and regulatory control.
Registered Alternative Medicine Products
There are currently only two alternative medicine products registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) registry:
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Epidyolex (cannabidiol), which is indicated for use as adjunctive therapy of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome for patients 2 years of age and older.
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Sativex Oromucosal Spray (nabiximols), which is indicated as treatment for symptom improvement in patients with moderate to severe spasticity due to multiple sclerosis who have not responded adequately to other anti-spasticity medication and who demonstrate clinically significant improvement in spasticity-related symptoms during an initial trial of therapy.
Unregistered Alternative Medicine Products
Most alternative medicine products are unapproved in Australia as they do not appear on the ARTG. Unapproved medicines need to be accessed through 'special access' pathways with approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
Types of Alternative Medicine Products Available
While various medicinal plants contain hundreds of bioactive molecules, there are two main active constituents often used for therapeutic purposes: delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
Alternative medicine should be thought of as a class of medication, rather than a single form of treatment. There are many alternative medicine products available in Australia that differ in chemical constituents, strength, formulation, and quality.
➡️ Alternative medicine products can be:
- Derived from plants, such as plant extracts.
- Made synthetically in a lab.
➡️ There are three main forms of alternative medicine products:
- Isolate: Isolated active ingredients, only THC or only CBD.
- Full-spectrum: Products containing a range of the constituents of the plant in different concentrations. These are typically high in THC or CBD and have lower levels of the other lesser-known minor compounds. These products tend to have THC.
- Broad-spectrum: Products containing a range of active compounds, but with no THC present.
➡️ Alternative medicine products can come in many different forms, including:
- Capsules
- Chewables
- Creams
- Flowers
- Lozenges
- Oils
- Oro-mucosal sprays
- Tinctures
