Use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in Alternative Complementary Therapy Research

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) continues to increase globally in treating various diseases. However, the potential role of CAM in modern clinical practice and health care systems appears to be limited and often even questioned. This limitation is caused by a demand to evaluate the success of CAM with a biomedical approach measure. The biomedical discipline uses scientific objectivity to explain medical phenomena through evidence-based methods, and the same method is often not applicable to CAM phenomena. This article proposes a qualitative research method with an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach that is more suitable to assess the success of CAM with a focus on the healing or life experience of participants. The use of qualitative research methods with an IPA approach provides a powerful tool for addressing doubts about the efficacy of CAM. Evidence of efficacy obtained from the healing experience of patients captured by the IPA method can be defiance of the hegemony of conventional biomedical evidence construction. The use of IPA in research on CAM therapy provides a different perspective from the quantitative approach to viewing a person’s health condition from the patient’s point of view. This different perspective will help researchers or health practitioners to provide assistance and or therapy that is more appropriate to the patient’s mental and physical condition.