Italy's National Medical Association FNOMCEO has declared certain forms of alternative medicine to be legitimate treatments, reports Reuters.
FNOMCEO formally recognised nine forms of alternative medicine, including acupuncture, homeopathy, ayurvedic medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic and traditional Chinese medicine.
The decision was reached in the association's national council last week, and it has now made an official request to the parliament to regulate the different forms of medicine.
The council said : "These non-conventional therapies must be considered a medical act in every respect, thus they must be practised exclusively by doctors."
In their guidelines, the doctors urged rigorous training and specific education programmes for all conventional medical doctors who choose to practise alternative medicine.
Until legislation is passed on the matter, the National Medical Association will oversee the practice of alternative medicine, and retains the power to prosecute those who do not respect the guidelines.
The Reuters report cited recent data from the national statistics bureau Istat, which found that 9 million Italians use complementary or non-conventional measures to treat illness and would like such therapies to be provided free of charge by the national health system.
The council also proposed the creation of a national health agency for alternative medicine to regulate the practice. This would be made up of representatives of the Health Ministry, the Regions, the Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research and the National Medical Association, said the report.
The council's move was welcomed by the Italian Federation of Acupuncture Societies.