The use of Complementary/Alternative Medicine among the general population in Tehran, Iran

This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of CAM use in Tehran, Iran. This cross sectional study was carried out on 6148 citizens of Tehran by cluster sampling. A questionnaires which were tested for validity and reliability in a pilot study, was used to collect data. The prevalence of use, number of methods, the costs and type of diseases were asked. Prayer(94.7%), herbal remedies (94.5%), Hajamat (90.8%) and Hydrotherapy (86.9%) were the most familiar and chiropractic (4.3%), pressure therapy (6.2%), homeopathy (10.3%) were the most unfamiliar reported methods by the study sample. Also, herbal remedies (54.6%) and prayer (24.2%) were the most prevalent and pressure therapy (0.3%), chiropractic (0.4%) and hypnotism (0.5%0 were the least prevalent methods were using by people. The supreme satisfaction was in yuga/meditation, traditional medicine and hydrotherapy. The most common reasons of selection of the CAM methods were successful past experiences of CAM, no response to conventional medicine and lower side effects of CAM. The most chief complaints were gastric and abdominal pain or discomfort, anxiety and other psychological disorders, cough and dyspnea. Peppermint (45.5%), borage (golgavzaban) (24.6%), chartokhmeh (7.9%) and oregano (avishan) (5.9%) were the most common plants have been used. Blood clotting disorders,low back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders, cutaneous disorders in hejamat and headache, musculoskeletal disorders and neuropsychological disorders in other CAM methods were the most common reason to apply. About half of the citizens in Tehran use at least one method of CAM at 1 year before the study. Prayer and herbal remedies were the most common methods have been applied. There is need to plan educational programs for people and train some experts in CAM to use and practice CAM in a more safer and effective way.