Content on integrative healthcare and complementary and alternative medicine is being taught in hundreds of educational programs across the country. Nursing, medical, osteopathic, chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathic, and other programs are finding creative and innovative ways to include these approaches in new models of education and practice. This column spotlights such innovations in integrative healthcare and CAM education and presents readers with specific educational interventions they can adapt into new or ongoing educational efforts at their institution or programs. We invite readers to submit brief descriptions of efforts in their institutions that reflect the creativity, diversity, and interdisciplinary nature of the field. Please submit to Dr Sierpina at vssierpi@utmb.edu or Dr Kreitzer at kreit003@umn.edu. Submissions should be no more than 500 to 1,500 words. Please include any Web site or other resource that is relevant, as well as contact information.

Kreitzer MJ, Sierpina V, Fleishman S. Explore (NY). 2010 Mar-Apr;6(2):112-4.

Shocking news of robberies committed using hypnosis on bank cashiers, salespeople, or passers-by has sporadically been reported by the media in countries around the world. The first reported episode in Italy dates to the 1950s. Although the phenomenon has been reported in the papers more frequently in recent years, no objective analysis of it has been published in the scientific literature. This paper analyzes 106 episodes recorded in Italy between 1988 and 2007, identified by a systematic review of the online and printed archives of Italian national and local dailies and of the database of the country's principal press agency. When they are analyzed from a psychological and criminological standpoint, there is no evidence to support any real use of hypnotic methods in the episodes described.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2009 Oct;57(4):419-30. Clerici CA, Veneroni L, De'micheli A, Betsos IM. Faculty of School of Medicine, Department of Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology, Section of Psychology, University of Milan, 20135 Milano, Italy. carlo.clerici@unimi.it