Table 1 Meta-syntheses search strategy

Databases

API-on©, CAMbase, CAM-QUEST®, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, DIMDI, GREENPILOT, Heclinet, MedPilot, PubMed, Psyndex, PsynINFO, Sinbad, Somed, DIMDI included EMBASE, GLOBAL Health, Derwent Drug File, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, MEDLINE, ISTPB + ISTP/ISSHP, Derwent Drug File for PSYNDEX, SciSearch, Adis, Newsletters, Deutsches Ärzteblatt, SOMED, Social SciSearch, AnimAlt-ZEBET, ETHMED, Thieme-Verlagsdatenbank, PsycINFO, BIOSIS Previews, HECLINET, Thieme-Verlagsdatenbank PrePrint, AMED, CAB Abstracts, Health Technology Assess. Database, gms, Cochrane Centr. Reg. of Contr. Trials, CCMED, Hogrefe-Verlagsdatenbank u. Volltexte, gms Meetings, EMBASE Alert, Cochrane Datab. of Syst. Rev. Karger-Verlagsdatenbank, IPA, DAHTA-Datenbank, Krause & Pachernegg Verlagsdatenbank, Derwent Drug Backfile, MEDIKAT, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects

GREENPILOT included AGRIS, AGRICOLA, BMELV, BfR (Risikobewertung), CC GREEN, CC MED, DissOnline, Econis, ELFIS, Ernährung. Umwelt. Agrar., FLI (Tiergesundheit), IPB (Pflanzenbiochemie), IPK Gatersleben (Kulturpflanzen), JKI (Kulturpflanzen), MEDLINE, Medizin. Gesundheit., MRI (Ernährung und Lebensmittel), SSG Küsten- und Hochseefischerei, SSG Veterinärmedizin (TiHo), UBA-OPAC und ULIDAT, UFORDAT

Search terms

Complementary and alternative medicine

(1a) Complementary and alternative medicine OR (1b) CAM OR (1c) complementary medicine OR (1d) alternative medicine

Qualitative research terms

(2a) qualitative research OR (2b) qualitative studies OR (2c) interviews OR (3) [exploratory OR grounded theory OR content analysis OR focus groups OR ethnography]

Patient decision making terms (only in PubMed, CINHAL and GREENPILOT)

(4) reasons OR (5) [concepts OR patient expectations OR motivation OR attitude to health OR patient communication OR health knowledge OR patient acceptance of health care OR patient participation OR physician-patient relations OR professional-patient relations OR socioeconomic factors]

Search strategy

(1) AND (2); (1) AND (2) OR (3); (1) AND (2) OR (3) AND (4); (1) AND (2) OR (3) AND (4) OR (5)