| Although Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) use by the general population has been widely reported in recent years, there is little understanding of mental healthcare provider's use of, familiarity with, and referral of their patients to CAM modalities. This study was an effort to more fully appreciate psychologists' attitudes toward CAM, as well as understand factors influencing their likelihood to refer to CAM providers. A survey of 135 licensed psychologists in San Diego and North Carolina assessed attitudes toward four prominent CAM modalities: homeopathic medicine, massage, mediation, and acupuncture. Also examined was whether learning more about homeopathy influenced psychologists' willingness to refer their patients to homeopathy for assistance with psychological ailments. Results indicate that, despite homeopathy being the most popular CAM modality among the general population worldwide, psychologists are less familiar, have less personal use of and refer less to homeopathy than to other CAM modalities. Results further indicate that education about homeopathy significantly increased psychologists' willingness to refer patients to a homeopathic provider. Personal use of homeopathy and referral to acupuncture was found to be responsible for more than half of the variance in referral to homeopathy. Other than San Diego psychologists more positive attitude toward acupuncture, findings were independent of region, race, religion, age, or sex. This study shows the discrepancy between psychologists' familiarity with CAM modalities and the likely use by their patients. It further highlights the impact of increased knowledge on psychologists' referral tendencies to CAM. Increased knowledge of CAM modalities such as those studied here are important in order to better understand patients current CAM use for psychological problems, as well as for psychologists to provide informed referrals. |
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