By Aisha Dow
Desiccated pig thyroid and homeopathic vaccines.
These are some of the unproven and sometimes dangerous remedies that general practitioners say are becoming increasingly common in Australia.
They are being adopted, in desperation, by patients with terminal cancer.
Dr Abhi Verma said it's fairly common for patients to use unproven treatments.Credit: Jason South
But people are also rejecting conventional medicine for a range of conditions, sometimes choosing to spend hundreds of dollars on alternative therapies and supplements, instead of visiting their GP.
It is a phenomenon that doctors say is driven by a range of factors, including a poor understanding of health issues, shortfalls in the medical system and the need for GPs to be better funded so they can spend more time with their patients.
"I think people are kind of desperate for hope," said Melbourne GP Abhi Verma, with the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners.
"They can use them for anything. It could be something as significant as cancer – or it could be for conditions like menopause. People are using a substance that is really not recommended."
Dr Verma said he has had a number of patients who used desiccated pig thyroid to treat thyroid disease, and he saw a baby who was given a homeopathic "vaccine" instead of the real vaccine and later caught whooping cough.
Desiccated pig thyroid is not an ingredient permitted for use in listed complementary medicines, the Therapeutic Goods Administration says.
While many alternative treatments are not dangerous, Dr Bruce Willett, a Queensland GP, said they may cause long-term harm by preventing people seeking more effective remedies.
He said in some cases patients had died, including a man in his late 30s who had been receiving colonic "washouts" for constipation for five years.
"Obviously in retrospect [the constipation] was due to his advancing bowel cancer," he said.
By the time Dr Willett saw the patient, the cancer was advanced.
"It was very sad," he said.
This is what happened to a man in Queensland who applied black salve to his head.
In Dr Willett’s clinic on Brisbane's bayside, it’s also common for him to see patients using black salve, a controversial alternative skin cancer treatment containing the plant bloodroot or zinc chloride, that eats away at the flesh. Some elderly patients had been left with “horrible” ulcers, he said.
“It is equivalent to just pouring sulphuric acid on it,” he said. “It’s like weeding your garden with napalm.”
It follows revelations by Fairfax Media this week that Melbourne nurse Helen Lawson had died from ovarian cancer within a few months of diagnosis, after she was allegedly dissuaded from surgery and prescribed black salve, which mutilated her stomach.
Mr Willett said he was also concerned about the cost of some alternative treatments. He recently saw a pensioner with cancer who had paid $250 to see a naturopath, in addition to $800 for various treatments.
The naturopath had promised to "shrink the cancer", he said.
"Fortunately he is engaged enough that he is happy to continue with his specialist oncologist. So he is doing both. But it’s sad to see money wasted."
Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon said it was disappointing that some patients were rejecting orthodox medicine in favour of "the claims of a charlatan".
But he is among a number of doctors who also argue that the mainstream health system needs to improve, so that fewer people feel the need to seek out unproven treatments.
"I think in orthodox medicine we have to acknowledge where we contribute to this," Dr Gannon said.
"Medicine has become highly technical, highly scientific [and] there are many doctors who are guilty of not spending the time with patients that some unorthodox practitioners do.
"I think we are guilty collectively of not taking enough time with pastoral care and emotional care of patients."
Dr Tony Bartone, a GP and Australian Medical Association vice-president, said family doctors needed to be better resourced to spend more time with their patients.
Meanwhile, Tasmanian GP Dr Marita Long encouraged patients to seek out doctors willing and able to have longer conversations.
"Why will a patient go and pay $150 to sit with a naturopath and then they go to the pharmacy to pay $100 worth of minerals, yet they are reluctant to pay a gap when they go to the GP?" Dr Long asked.
"There’s something that just not quite right.
"You can understand that patients are looking for something else, but it may be that it’s already there."
In Victoria and NSW, general health practitioners such as homeopaths are not allowed to claim they can cure cancers, or attempt to dissuade clients from seeking medical treatment.
Those that ignore these rules can receive a prohibition order preventing them from practicing, while those who breach such an order can be penalised with a large fine or jail time.