Complementary/alternative medicine: knowledge, attitudes and practice among general practitioners in Tehran, Iran

To investigate about knowledge, attitude and practice among general practitioners in Tehran, Iran. Using a short questionnaire 339 physicians was entered into the study. The subjects were approached during the 13 compulsatory postgraduate courses. The study findings indicate that 84.9% of general practitioners believe that the use of alternative therapies is mounting yearly and herbal medicine; cupping and acupuncture (respectively) are the most common methods being used. There were at least 9.9% of physicians using one or more methods of complementary medicine in practice and 24% of them had referred their patients to alternative therapist during the last 6 months. The knowledge of the majority of general practitioners about the most of the common procedures was very limited. Physicians besides having emphasis on supervision of such activities, disagree strongly with these methods being performed by non-physicians. Overall physicians had positive attitudes toward usefulness of complementary methods. However, there is need to improve their knowledge on the topic.