Knowledge, attitudes, and usage of complementary-alternative medicine (CAM): A national survey of clinical psychologists in Indonesia

Abstract

This nationwide cross-sectional study aimed to explore Indonesian clinical psychologists’ (CP) knowledge, attitudes, and usage of complementary-alternative medicines (CAM). A link to the online survey was emailed to all 1045 registered CP in the Indonesian Clinical Psychology Association database. Participants were asked about: CAM knowledge, attitudes towards CAM, and CAM usage activities (personal purpose, recommendation, referral, and the use of CAM in practice). Two hundred and seventy-four CP completed the questionnaire (mean of age = 35.4 years, SD = 7.87) and were predominantly female (n = 237, 86.5%). Participants reported low CAM knowledge and positive attitudes towards CAM. Almost half of the participants reported personal experiences of using CAM as the main resource of CAM knowledge. The majority of participants (n = 239, 87.2%) had used CAM personally, had recommended CAM (n = 230, 83.9%), had made a referral to a CAM practitioner (n = 143, 52.2%), and had used CAM in their clinical practice (n = 180, 65.7%). Spiritual-religious therapy was the most often used method by participants. In exploring prediction models, it was found that age, knowledge of, together with attitudes towards CAM contributed to the prediction of CAM usage activities. In conclusion, despite low CAM knowledge, CP in Indonesia reported positive attitudes towards CAM and most had used CAM. Findings from this study might be used by professional organizations, psychology faculties, and the government to review the basic competency of CP and regulation in integrating CAM to psychology services.