title: Attitude and practice of patients and doctors towards complementary and alternative medicine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the attitude towards complementary and alternative medicine among the doctors and patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out at Civil Hospital Karachi and Liaquat National University Hospital, Karachi during April to September 2010. Two sets of questionnaires were developed separately for doctors and patients. Each set consisted of queries regarding demographic data of patients and doctors. The questionnaire for the patients contained questions reflecting the general attitude, mode of complimentary and alternative medicine usage, disease referred and the underlined reasons behind pricking the options. The questionnaires for doctors in general laid focus on the personal opinion about the practice not only for their own use, but also related to their concern towards those patients who used complimentary and alternative medicine. Predictive analysis software statistics 18 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the patients, 237 (59.3%) used complimentary and alternative medicine. Herbal medicine followed by homeopathic medicine were the most commonly used therapies. Fever and cough were the most common diseases for which patients used the options. The preference was mainly based on inter-personal communications, reliance on complimentary and alternative medicine, and financial restriction. Concealing from the doctors was common in patients. Only 62 (34.4%) out of 180 doctors used complimentary and alternative medicine themselves. Refusal by other doctors was because they considered the option ineffective, obsolete and unsatisfactory. About half of the doctors forbade the patients to use such therapies, but 31% (n=73) patients ignored the doctor's advice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of complimentary and alternative medicine is highly prevalent in our society by patients irrespective of their social class. Preference for such therapies, on the other hand, is quite low among medical doctors as they consider allopathic medicine to be effective.
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College Campus, Karachi. rabyyan_23@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Rabyyan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Junaid
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abaas
authors.forename: Batool
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fatima
authors.forename: Irma
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Anis
authors.forename: Mehwish
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hussain
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010154:Pakistan; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires