Available online at www.sciencedirect.com European Journal of Integrative Medicine 3 (2011) e271–e279 Self-reported changes in quality of life among people with multiple sclerosis who have participated in treatments based on collaboration between conventional healthcare providers and CAM practitioners L. Bjerre a , I. Henningsen d , L. Skovgaard a,b,∗ , L. Launsø a,c, a The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Society, Mosedalvej 15, 2500 Valby, Denmark b Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark c The National Research Centre on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NAFKAM), University of Tromsø, Norway d Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark Received 22 July 2011; received in revised form 3 October 2011; accepted 3 October 2011 Abstract Aim of the study: This study assesses the changes in self-reported quality of life (QoL) from hospitalisation to 18 months later among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have participated in treatments based on collaboration between conventional healthcare providers and CAM practitioners. Materials and methods: A pre- and post-test evaluation design including an intervention group and a comparison group was employed in this study. 142 people with MS were analysed in the intervention group and 142 in the comparison group. Each person in the intervention group was treated with combined interventions by a team of five healthcare providers and five CAM practitioners. The outcome measure was a change in QoL (measured as the difference in total score and sub-scores on the Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS) QoL scale). Results: From hospitalisation and through an 18-month period, people with MS who had participated in treatments based on collaboration between healthcare providers and CAM practitioners experienced a statistically significant different change in QoL compared to people with MS who had been treated within the current ‘best practice’ model. The difference in QoL was found within the areas of emotional well-being and thinking/fatigue. Conclusion: The results indicate that collaboration between healthcare providers and CAM practitioners can improve treatment outcomes regarding some of the psychological aspects of QoL over a period of 18 months for people with MS. © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Keywords: Multiple sclerosis; Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM); Collaboration; Quality of Life (QoL) Introduction Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive neu- rological disorder that can lead to severe disability. MS is unpredictable in patterns and exacerbation/remission of symp- toms [1,2]. The absolute number as well as prevalence of MS is increasing and represents a substantial challenge to treatment, prevention, health promotion and rehabilitation [3–5]. ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Public Health, University of Copen- hagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Tel.: +45 35327937. E-mail address: lesk@sund.ku.dk (L. Skovgaard).  The author L.Launsø died in 2009. A high and increasing use of complementary and alterna- tive medicine (CAM) is documented among people with MS [6–9]. This usage reflects patients’ exploration of various treat- ment modalities to obtain a broad spectrum of useful outcomes in their attempts to live with a chronic disease [10–15]. Typi- cally, patients want to combine conventional medicine and CAM [8,16–19]. Realising the strengths and limitations of conventional medicine, patients, patient associations and healthcare providers are searching for treatment approaches that encompass other concepts of health and disease, and diagnostic systems that combine or integrate conventional healthcare with CAM [11,14,20–30]. Internationally a move towards bridge build- ing between conventional and CAM treatment takes place [20,24,25,29,31–39]. Kaptchuk and Miller examine three 1876-3820/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eujim.2011.10.004