THE KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEFS OF MEDICAL STUDENTS AND DOCTORS ON COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE, AND TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT PRACTICE OF CAM

Introduction: Over a period of the last few decades, a significant worldwide interest has been seen in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Many countries have been practicing CAM for centuries, even including those where the mainstream health care facility available is biomedicine.(1) CAM plays an important role in terms of health promotion, prevention and cure which is also advocated by World Health Organization (WHO). Objectives: To assess the knowledge and beliefs of medical students and doctors towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and to identify the current practice of CAM among the medical students and doctors. Methodology: This study was conducted in the setting of Fatima Memorial Hospital and FMH College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore in a time duration of 6 months. The type of Study used was Descriptive; Cross Sectional Study with Probability; Stratified Random Sampling, sample size was 748 among which minimal calculated size for doctors was 373 whereas minimal calculated size for medical students was 375. The medical students were selected from all the five professional years and the doctors were selected from all the departments of the medical college and hospital. Self-administered questionnaire was provided to the participants, consent was taken and the confidentiality of the data was ensured. Approval from the IRB of Fatima Memorial System was taken. Results: In this study, a total of 748 participants were enrolled out of which there were 373 (49.9%) doctors and 375 (50.1%) students of the private medical college and affiliated tertiary care hospital of Lahore. The mean age of the participants was 26.21 ± 7.33 S.D. There were 177 (47.5%) male and 196 (52.5%) female doctors who participated in the study, whereas among the students there were 143 (38.1%) male and 232 (61.9%) female. In terms of awareness, 61.7% Doctors and 44% Students were aware of the term CAM (p value 0.000). Conclusion: On the basis of the findings of the current study, it is concluded that, doctors were more aware about CAM than the students. Media was the most common source of information and homeopathy was the most commonly known and used therapy among them. CAM was opted mainly due to no or less side effects, usage was need based and mostly for specific disease. Only a few participants experienced side effects. Majority of doctors and students recommended CAM to their patients and other people and were of the opinion that doctors should study and be an expert in alternative medicine, whereas only half of the participants thought that CAM should be an integral part of the medical curriculum. As there is little evidence about the beneficial effect of CAM and that the doctors and students are not formally trained, so it cannot justify the use of CAM as an alternative or additional treatment especially while recommending it to other people and patients and concrete strategies are needed to integrate CAM as a part of the curriculum and training