Unique place of Kampo (Japanese traditional medicine) in complementary and alternative medicine: a survey of doctors belonging to the regional medical association in Japan

Abstract

Although there are various kinds of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, it is conjectured that medical doctors consider individual CAM therapies to be heterogeneous in nature. Therefore, to investigate the relationship among Kampo (Japanese traditional medicine) and other CAM, a survey using a structured, self-administered questionnaire was performed for 540 randomly selected doctors of the Kyoto Medical Association (KMA). The results showed that some form of CAM was practiced by 73% of the KMA doctors. The most common CAM practice was Kampo, which corresponded to 96.1% of CAM-practicing doctors. A smaller percentage of doctors practiced other forms of alternative medicine. Kampo was best known by doctors among other CAM therapies. Almost all doctors believed in the effectiveness of Kampo. Doctors who believed in the effectiveness of Kampo tended to believe that other CAM therapies were also effective. Cluster analysis revealed that Kampo was distant from the other CAM. It was concluded that Kampo was most frequently practiced and most believed by doctors in Japan among CAM therapies. Since Kampo was independent of other CAM therapies, Kampo's place in CAM therapies was very unique in Japan.