Exploring General Practitioners' attitudes to homeopathy in Dumfries and Galloway.
This comparative quantitative study explored General Practitioners' (GPs) attitudes to homeopathy in Dumfries and Galloway, a predominantly rural area in South West Scotland where there is a local British Homeopathic Association Funded Homeopathic Clinic. It aimed to determine whether there was an association between expressed attitudes to homeopathy and a number of variables. Issues arising from the House of Lords Report on CAM were also explored. A self-administered questionnaire was addressed to all 135 GPs within Dumfries and Galloway. Descriptive statistics were used in the data analysis. The response rate was 75%. The NHS GP clinic accounted for 47% of total referrals for homeopathy. A total of 86.1% of GPs within Dumfries and Galloway were in favour of a local NHS Homeopathic Specialist Clinic. Forms of evidence most influential to GPs regarding homeopathy were: randomised controlled trials; audit data on patient outcomes; safety and patient satisfaction.
Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. elainechamilton@aol.com
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D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006705:Homeopathy / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012606:Scotland; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors