Subject Trends in Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Theses

The lack of evidence-based information and guidance hasprevented the development and authorization of traditional/ complementary/ alternative medicine methods and has not extend the development of its systems. The tendency to research in the field of traditional/ complementary / alternative medicine is the result of the desire of health professionals to create scientific evidence in this field and to transform the experiences into evidence from scientific experiments and research. On the other hand, there is a need for the community and the interest of researchers in this matter. The theses are registered and defended from valuable scientific documents in the university that can complement the course of the interest of students and professors of various specialized fields to the field of applied medicine.

From The total of 7858 titles of the library theses of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, 418 titles were related to traditional medicine/ complementary/ alternative medicine. That is, for each 19 theses titles one title was about traditional medicine/ complementary/ alternative medicine.

In this study, the growth of theses on the subject of traditional medicine is quite evident, as the total number of theses in 1380 with 458 titles increased by  23.53% to 599 titles in 1395. In this comparison, the growth rate of the number of traditional / complementary / alternative theses has risen from 24 titles to 43 in the year 1395, ie, with the increase of 16.69% between the first and the last year.

Despite the good growth of theses in the field of traditional medicine/ complementary/ alternative medicine in recent years, it is still not favorable in comparison with the total number of dissertations. With the help of advocacy and information policies, the trend towards this subject can be promoted among theses of the University of Medical Sciences.