Objectives: To describe Victorian general practitioners' attitudes towards and use of a range of complementary therapies.Design: A self-adm inistered postal survey sent to a random sample of 800 general practitioners (GPs) in Victoria in July 1997.Participants: 488 GPs (response rate, 64%). Main outcome measures:GPs' knowledge; opinions about harmfulness and effectiveness; appropriateness for GPs to practise ; perceived patient demand ; need for undergraduate education; referral rates to complementary practitioners; and training in and practice of each therapy.Results: Acupunctu re, hypnosis and meditation are well accepted by the surveyed GPs, as over 80% have referred patients to practitione rs of these therapies and nearly half have considered using them. General practitioners have trained in various therapies -meditation (34%), acupuncture (23%), vitamin and mineral therapy (23%), hypnosis (20%), herbal medicine (12%), chiropractic (8%), naturopathy (6%), homoeopathy (5%), spiritual healing (5%), osteopathy (4%), aromatherapy (4%), and reflexology (2%). A quarter to a third were interested in training in chiropractic, herbal medicine, naturopathy and vitamin and mineral therapy. General practitioners appear to underestimate thei r patients' use of complementary therapies .Conclusions: There is evidence in Australia of widesp read acceptance of acupunctu re, meditation , hypnosis and chiropract ic by GPs and lesser acceptance of the other therap ies. These findings generate an urgent need for evidence of these therapies ' effectiveness.With otler 36','" updates included and ",.. of Australia's doctors listed, you can rely on the MDA etlen more for your medical contact information! Brand new data on doctors and otherhealthcare professionals are now available in the Year 2000 Commemorative edition of The Medical Directory of Australia. Withover360,000 updates, the MDA contains the most accurate and comprehensive Information on over99% of Australia's doctors and otherhealthcare professionals. You will find information on over55,000 doctors, over 4,000

A regulatory framework allowing legal access to medicinal cannabis (MC) products has operated in Australia since November 2016. MC prescribing by healthcare practitioners (HCPs) is primarily conducted through the Special Access Scheme - Category B (SAS-B) pathway, through which prescribers apply to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA–the federal regulator) for approval to prescribe a category of product to an individual patient suffering from a specific indication. The dataset collected by the TGA provides a unique opportunity to examine MC prescribing trends over time in the Australian population. Here we analysed this TGA SAS-B dataset since inception with respect to age, gender, product type (e.g., oil, flower, etc.), CBD content, indication treated, and prescriber location. Results are presented descriptively as well as being analysed using non-linear regression models. Relationship between variables were explored via correspondence analyses. Indications were classified with reference to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (10th Revision). As of 31 August 2021, a total of 159,665 SAS-B approvals had been issued for MC products, 82.4% of were since January 2020. Leading indications for approvals were for pain, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Oil products were the most popular product type, while CBD-dominant products (≥98% CBD) accounted for 25.1% of total approvals. Approvals for flower products increased markedly during 2020–2021, as did approvals involving younger age groups (18–31 years old), male patients, and non-CBD dominant products. A disproportionate number of SAS-B MC applications (around 50%) came from HCPs in the state of Queensland. Associations between patient gender and age and/or indication with product type were found. For example, approvals for oil products were commonly associated with approvals for pain. While, overall prescribing increased dramatically over the last 2 years of analysis, stabilization of approval numbers is evident for some indications, such as pain. Current prescribing practices do not always reflect provided TGA guidance documents for MC prescribing. While acknowledging some limitations around the SAS-B dataset, it provides a unique and valuable resource with which to better understand current prescribing practices and utilisation of MC products within Australia.

BackgroundChronic pain is a major health issue, adversely affecting millions of Australians and costing billions of dollars annually. Current pharmaceutical treatments may be limiting, and in some cases ineffective, while carrying substantial liabilities. Medicinal cannabis is an increasingly popular, albeit controversial, alternative. Medicinal cannabis in the treatment of chronic painMedicinal cannabis in the treatment of chronic pain Clinical

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