Exploring Integrative Medicine in Swedish Primary Care

In short, integrative care was up to 10 complementary therapy treatments delivered to the patient in addition to the usual care over an intervention period of up to 12 weeks. The integrative care was provided by a multidisciplinary team coordinated by a gate keeping general practitioner with clinical knowledge and experience of CTs and senior licensed/certified CT providers representing Swedish massage therapy, manual therapy/naprapathy, shiatsu, acupuncture and qigong.

The usual care treatment was coordinated by the patient's general practitioner and complied with the clinical practice routines at the participating primary care units. Conventional procedures included but were not exclusive to advice, prescription of drugs, sick leave and physiotherapy/physical therapy. There were no constraints to the provided usual care as the study aimed to pragmatically reflect the general practitioners' standard care and treatment as usual.