An American clinic for traditional Chinese medicine: comparisons to family medicine and chiropractic.

Patient self-selection delimits the kinds of disorders treated by practitioners of acupuncture and other traditional Chinese modalities in the United States. Based upon a questionnaire administered to 200 first-time patients in a teaching clinic for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in California, it was determined that practitioners of TCM attract patients whose health problems would also be appropriate for management by family physicians, chiropractors or mental health professionals. Approximately one-third of presenting complaints can be categorized as presumed organic disorders (many of which may have been medical treatment failures); one-third comprise musculoskeletal problems and headaches; and one-third appear to be psychological or psychosomatic in nature.