According to the official data provided by the Ministry of Health, in Italy about 8 million citizens make use of one or more Complementary or Integrated Medicines.
Several studies have been conducted in order to quantify the use of and interest in CAM therapies from the Italian population, particularly in the pediatric age group: in 2007 ISTAT (Central Statistics Institute) carried out the first study dealing with Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Phytotherapy and Acupuncture; it revealed that in 2005 7,9 million people, that is 13,6% of the National population, had made use of one of the CAM therapies three years before the research (Picture with Italy).