Patients' Trust in Complementary and Alternative Medicine:A Narrative Study

Patients' trust in physicians and the treatment system has been a major issue in medical sociological research for the past two decades. With the rapid expansion of the demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services worldwide, many research have been conducted on this issue and examined the grounds and reasons for trust in non-conventional medicine. In Iran, a similar trend is experienced towards different types of complementary and alternative medicine, which is worthy of sociological research. In this regard, the present study used the narrative method and conducted twenty-nine interviews with patients who had experience in treatment with CAM to spot what types of trust in CAM can be identified. For this purpose, using Giddens's views, the challenge of trusting modern medicine as an expert system and rebuilding trust in an alternative health care system has been examined. "Institutional", "therapist-based trust", "epistemological trust" and "trust based on the lived experience of others" are distinguished from each other. The construction of alternative medicine as "harmless medicine" and "easy medicine" has also been considered as grounds for trusting in non-modern medicine.