AMED: Allied and Complementary Medicine Database 

Hidden Gem and the “fly in the ointment.”

Finding current, high-quality information about Integrative medicine is difficult. Integrative medicine attempts to meld conventional and non-conventional approaches to health. Of course, what is considered conventional or not may depend on you! 

Integrative medicine is a broad field that includes everything from herbal treatments and massage to chiropractic and healing systems like Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, which are thousands of years old. 

The Hidden Gem

AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database) is a database produced by the British Library since 1985. AMED adds to the information found in PubMed. AMED is for anyone exploring alternative therapies, palliative care, or allied professions like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, podiatry, and osteopathy. It indexes over 500 specialist journals, many of which feature strong European and non-English content not found in mainstream databases.

The Fly in the Ointment

As a result of a damaging cyberattack on the British Library in 2023, the database will not be updated after December 31, 2026. The existing database will remain as a static resource after January 1, 2027. Lane Library will continue to offer AMED. The content will gradually become outdated. 

We offer alternative sources at the end of this blog post. Our hope is that the British Library can fully restore its services, including AMED. 

Learn More About the Cyberattack:

• Cyber-attack recovery update on the British Library blog
• Learning Lessons from the Cyber-Attack on the British Library blog
• Fiscus M. Knowledge held hostage: what the British Library ransomware attack can teach us. C&RL. 2024;85(5):628. doi:10.5860/crl.85.5.628

Additional Sources of Information

• NatMedPro 
  • “The most authoritative resource on supplements, natural medicines, and integrative therapies.”
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).
  • They list searches to run in PubMed about a variety of topics here: https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/litreviews
• MedlinePlus
  • a governmental source of vetted information about all things biomedical. It is useful for all, from the non-medical to the specialist. A great resource for patients and families.
• PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL databases
  • Each contains useful articles about integrative medicine. 
  • All are found in Top Resources on the Lane Library homepage. 
  • Here is a link to quick search tips for each database

If you need additional help, reach out to our library staff.