The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges its indebtedness to our Member States, regional offices, and WHO Member State representative offices for actively providing data on the practice and legal status of traditional and complementary/alternative medicine in their countries and regions. Thanks is also expressed to those international professional organizations, such as the World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies, World Federation of Chiropractic, World Chiropractic Alliance, and Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, who provided valuable information specific to their relevant therapies. We especially thank Mr Neil Cummings (Canada), Mr Josh Gagne (USA), Ms Sophie Lasseur (France), Ms Yong Li (China), Mr Stefano Maddalena (Switzerland), Ms Magali Ramillien (France), Ms Valerie Truong (Canada), and Mr Guoliang Zhang (China) for drafting and revising the document and Ms Kathleen Sheridan (Netherlands) and Ms Diane Whitney (USA) for editing the final draft.

Appreciation is extended to the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Health and Social Affairs for providing the financial support to print this review.