Brazilian medical students want to learn homeopathy and acupuncture in medical schools

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Brazilian medical students want to learn homeopathy and acupuncture in medical schools

Flávio Dantas; Hagen Rampes

^{Address for correspondence}

Teixeira's¹ findings among medical students at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo confirm our results among medical students from the United Kingdom² and from all Brazilian regions,³ namely that they have a positive attitude towards complementary healthcare and would like to learn more about it. Ernst⁴ came to the same conclusion in a systematic review that included studies involving 2,123 medical students from European countries and the United States. Our original data from Brazil are from 1997 (with the additional inclusion of phytotherapy and hypnosis) and showed that 51% of our sample had had personal experience in using homeopathy (and 84% got positive results), but only 27% had been treated by acupuncture (93% got positive results). We found that students who stated that they knew about homeopathy and acupuncture either very well or fairly well responded mostly that these practices were extremely or very effective. 82% of the students stated that homeopathy should be available in public health services and 70% in the case of acupuncture. It has also been found that doctors in São Paulo believe it is important to know complementary medicine, and that 51% already recommend it for their patients.⁵

In teaching homeopathy and acupuncture one needs to pay special attention to impartiality and showing both sides of the situation. Medical students' assessments after five elective courses of homeopathy at Universidade Federal de São Paulo showed that 80% of them perceived its teaching to be impartial.⁶ We hope these findings will stimulate Brazilian medical educators and heads of medical schools to establish continuous teaching of these two medical specialties in Brazil, along with phytomedicine.

REFERENCES

1. Teixeira MZ, Lin CA, Martins MA. Homeopathy and acupuncture teaching at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo: the undergraduates' attitudes. Sao Paulo Med J. 2005;123(2):77-82.

2. Rampes H, Sharples F, Maragh S, Fisher P. Introducing complementary medicine into the medical curriculum. J R Soc Med. 1997;90(1):19-22.

3. Dantas F, Ribeiro CT. Atitudes de estudantes de medicina sobre práticas médicas heterodoxas no Brasil. [Attitudes of Brazilian medical students towards complementary and alternative medicines]. Rev Bras Educ Méd. 2002;26(2):99-104.

4. Ernst E. Medical students' attitudes towards complementary medicine: systematic review. Student BMJ. 1998;6:204-6.

5. Kazusei A. Práticas não-convencionais em medicina no município de São Paulo. [Practice of unconventional medicine in São Paulo City, Brazil]. [thesis]. São Paulo: Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo; 2004.

6. Dantas F. Avaliação pelos alunos da disciplina eletiva de Introdução à Homeopatia na EPM/UNIFESP. Revista Digital de Educação Permanente em Saúde. 2004;1 (1 supl 2):132. Available from: http://www.abem-educmed.org.br/publicacoes/ revista_digital/suplemento/pdf_vol_1_2004/vitoria_2004/digital_2004.pdf. Accessed in 2006 (Jul 18).

Hagen Rampes

Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust

7^th Floor – Premier House

112 Station Road

Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 7BJ, United Kingdom

E-mail: [e-mail]

Sources of funding: Not declared: None

Conflict of interest: Not declared: None

Date of first submission: July 25, 2005

Last received: July 18, 2006

Accepted: July 18, 2006

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Flávio Dantas, MD, ScD. Professor of Homeopathy at Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais; Visiting Professor at Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

Hagen Rampes, MD. Consultant Psychiatrist at Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, Edgware, Middlesex, United Kingdom.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  30 Oct 2006
• Date of issue
  2006