new PubMed subset, "Complementary Medicine" is available. This subset is designed to limit a search to citations in the vast and diverse area of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This is the third subject subset (following AIDS and Toxicology) to be added as a choice on the Subset pull-down menu on the Limits screen. Alternatively, you can incorporate the subset into a search using "AND cam [sb]".

      Example: osteoarthritis AND cam [sb]

The Complementary Medicine subset is a joint project between NLM and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). This subset was created using a search strategy that includes terms in the Alternative Medicine branch of MeSH, terms provided by NCCAM, and a number of journals indexed for MEDLINE that include significant CAM-related content.

NCCAM has added a new page to its web site that provides a link, CAM on PubMed. This link connects the user to PubMed and automatically limits the search to the Complementary Medicine subset.

On this page, you can also find links to Frequently Asked Questions [Editor's Note: This link has been removed because it is not longer available.] and NCCAM's Press Release. There are also three sample searches so a user can quickly see how to enter search terms.

By Annette M. Nahin
MEDLARS Management Section

Nahin AM. Complementary Medicine - New PubMed Subset. NLM Tech Bull. 2001 Jan-Feb;(318):e7.