Attitudes of Medical and Nonmedical Students Toward Orthodox and Complementary Therapies: Is Scientific Evidence Taken into Account?

Abstract

Medical and nonmedical students completed a questionnaire indicating how willing they would be to try various therapies for treatment. Both groups assessed more traditional complementary practices such as homeopathy and acupuncture as similar to more orthodox treatments such as physiotherapy or prescribed diets. Both groups appeared not to differentiate between established techniques (physiotherapy) and less tested techniques (yoga). Furthermore, neither group seemed particularly concerned about the scientific evaluations of treatments.