Traditional Native healing. Alternative or adjunct to modern medicine?

Abstract

Objective: To ascertain the extent to which family physicians in British Columbia agree with First Nations patients' using traditional Native medicines.

Design: Randomized cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Family medicine practices in British Columbia.

Participants: A randomized volunteer sample of 79 physicians from the registry of the BC Chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Of 125 physicians contacted, 46 did not reply.

Main outcome measures: Physicians' demographic variables and attitudes toward patients' use of traditional Native medicines.

Results: Respondents generally accepted the use of traditional Native medicines for health maintenance, palliative care, and the treatment of benign illness. More disagreement was found with its use for serious illnesses, both for outpatients and in hospital, and especially in intensive care. Many physicians had difficulty forming a definition of traditional Native medicine, and were unable to give an opinion on its health risks or benefits. A significant positive correlation appeared between agreement with the use of traditional Native medicines and physicians' current practice serving a large First Nations population, as well as with physicians' knowing more than five patients using traditional medicine.

Conclusions: Cooperation between traditional Native and modern health care systems requires greater awareness of different healing strategies, governmental support, and research to determine views of Native patients and healers.