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CAM's popularity may be related to other factors which
Edzard Ernst mentioned in an interview in
The Independent:
Why is it so popular, then? Ernst blames the providers,
customers and the doctors whose neglect, he says, has created
the opening into which alternative therapists have stepped.
"People are told lies. There are 40 million websites and 39.9
million tell lies, sometimes outrageous lies. They mislead
cancer patients, who are encouraged not only to pay their last
penny but to be treated with something that shortens their
lives. "At the same time, people are gullible. It needs
gullibility for the industry to succeed. It doesn't make me
popular with the public, but it's the truth.[205]
In a paper published in October 2010 entitled The public's
enthusiasm for complementary and alternative medicine amounts to a
critique of mainstream medicine, Ernst described these views in
greater detail and concluded:
[CAM] is popular. An analysis of the reasons why this is so
points towards the therapeutic relationship as a key factor.
Providers of CAM tend to build better therapeutic relationships
than mainstream healthcare professionals. In turn, this implies
that much of the popularity of CAM is a poignant criticism of
the failure of mainstream healthcare. We should consider it
seriously with a view of improving our service to patients.[206]
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