Table 6.
Complementary medicine used in people with self-reported mental health disorders and joint pain, and in those seeing an alternative health practitioner (naturopath or osteopath)
| Mental health condition | Joint pain | CM practitioner | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM (n) | No (2639) | Yes (477) | No (1235) | Diagnosed arthritis (648) | Joint pain with no arthritis diagnosis (1241) | No (2894) | Yes (228) |
| Number CMs | |||||||
| 0 (2247) | 73.2 (1931) | 66.2 (316) | 78.1 (964) | 63.9 (414) | 70.5 (875) | 73.6 (2129) | 53.7 (123) |
| 1–2 (696) | 21.5 (568) | 26.8 (128) | 17.4 (215) | 28.2 (183) | 24.2 (300) | 22.0 (636) | 27.1 (62) |
| 3–4 (142) | 4.4 (115) | 5.7 (27) | 4.0 (49) | 6.5 (42) | 4.1 (51) | 3.7 (107) | 14.4 (33) |
| 5+ (31) | 0.9 (25) | 1.3 (6) | 0.6 (7) | 1.4 (9) | 1.2 (15) | 0.7 (21) | 4.8 (11) |
| All vitamins: Multi, B, C, E, Coenzyme Q10 (590) | 18.2 (481) | 22.8* (109) | 16.7 (206) | 18.4 (119) | 21.4* (266) | 17.6 (508) | 36.0* (82) |
| Fish oil (205) | 6.3 (167) | 7.9 (38) | 4.7 (58) | 13.3* (86) | 4.9 (61) | 6.2 (180) | 11.0* (25) |
| Glucosamine/shark cartilage (175) | 5.6 (147) | 5.9 (28) | 1.8 (22) | 13.7* (89) | 5.1* (63) | 5.1 (149) | 11.0* (25) |
| Herbal† (139) | 4.4 (117) | 4.6 (22) | 3.7 (46) | 4.9 (32) | 5.1 (63) | 3.8 (110) | 13.2* (30) |
| Mineral: Mg, Zn (78) | 2.3 (61) | 3.6 (17) | 1.8 (22) | 2.6 (17) | 3.2 (40) | 2.2 (65) | 5.7* (13) |
| St. John’s wort (12) | 0.2 (6) | 1.3* (6) | 0.5 (6) | 0.3 (2) | 0.3 (4) | 0.4 (11) | 0.4 (1) |
| Gingko biloba (50) | 1.6 (42) | 1.7 (8) | 1.2 (15) | 2.3 (15) | 1.7 (21) | 1.6 (45) | 2.2 (5) |
| Evening primrose (47) | 1.6 (42) | 1.0 (5) | 1.6 (20) | 1.1 (7) | 1.6 (20) | 1.5 (43) | 2.2 (5) |
| Black cohosh (18) | 0.4 (10) | 1.7* (8) | 0.3 (4) | 0.9 (6) | 0.7 (9) | 0.5 (14) | 2.2* (5) |
| Saw Palmetto (13) | 0.5 (12) | 0.2 (1) | 0.3 (4) | 0.6 (4) | 0.5 (6) | 0.4 (12) | 0.4 (1) |
| Probiotics (15) | 0.3 (9) | 1.3* (6) | 0.5 (6) | 0.3 (2) | 0.6 (7) | 0.3 (9) | 2.6* (6) |
*
Notes: P < 0.05 compared with those without the condition;
†
garlic, celery, ginseng, echinacea, “herbal”, belladonna.
Abbreviation: CM, complementary medicine.