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A survey of 276 Colorado physicians was published in the May 2002 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine . Physicians were asked about their attitudes toward alternative medicine and their pattern of recommendation and personal use. Here are the interesting findings:At the doctor's office, patients are sometimes asked about their use of alternative therapies. |
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- 8% always ask about alternative therapy use
- 23% asked their patients about alternative therapy use more than half of the time
- 52% asked about alternative therapy use less than half of the time
- 17% never ask
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| Many doctors do not feel comfortable discussing alternative therapies with their patients. |
- 9% had a very positive attitude toward discussing alternative therapies with patients
- 35% had a somewhat positive attitude
- 40% were neutral
- 14% had a somewhat negative attitude
- 2% had a very negative attitude
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Patients want information from their doctors about the safety and effectiveness of alternative therapies.In this study, 59% of the doctors had been asked about alternative therapies. Patients requested information about: |
- Acupuncture (59%)
- Herbal (botanical) medicine (55%)
- Chiropractic (52%)
- Alternative medicine in general (49%)
- Massage therapy (41%)
- Special diet (35%)
- Megavitamins (32%)
- Biofeedback (29%)
- Relaxation (28%)
- Homeopathy (21%)
- Folk Medicine (17%)
- Yoga (16%)
- Hypnosis (14%)
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Nearly half (48%) of the doctors surveyed had recommended alternative medicine to a patient.Interestingly, 24% of the doctors had personally used alternative medicine, and this was strongly associated with the likelihood of recommending alternative medicine to patients. Some of the therapies doctors personally used were: |
- Massage therapy (24%)
- Relaxation techniques (17%)
- Alternative medicine in general (16%)
- Herbal therapy (14%)
- Yoga (11%)
- Acupuncture (10%)
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| Doctors are interested in learning more about alternative medicine to address patient concerns. In this survey, 60% of doctors wanted to learn more, 24% said they were unsure or maybe wanted to learn more, and 16% said they did not want to learn more. The doctors recommended these therapies to their patients: |
- Massage therapy (48%)
- Relaxation techniques (41%)
- Acupuncture (35%)
- Biofeedback (35%)
- Chiropractic (30%)
- Alternative medicine in general (28%)
- Herbal medicine (21%)
- Yoga (16%)
- Hypnosis (15%)
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| Note: Surveys were delivered to 705 physicians. Of these, 302 (43%) were returned. This must be considered when interpreting the survey results because they may not accurately reflect the physician population. |
| Reference:Corbin Winslow L, Shapiro H. Physicians want education about complementary and alternative medicine to enhance communication with their patients. Source is Archives of Internal Medicine. 2002:162:1176-81 by Cathy Wong |
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