Complementary medicine in Germany.

Generally speaking, complementary medicine is increasingly popular. But there are considerable national and regional differences, and the reasons for them are not always well understood. In this issue, Schwarz and colleagues publish data suggesting that, in the German region of West Pomerania, the 1-year prevalence of use of complementary medicine is 6%. This contrasts sharply with the 1-year prevalence figure of 62% in the rest of Germany. The reasons for this difference relate to health policies of the Nazis 70 years ago and to the former communist East German government, as well as to the fact that complementary medicine is, at least partly, private health care.