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Sao Paulo Med J
Sao Paulo Med J
Sao Paulo Med J
São Paulo Medical Journal
1516-3180
1806-9460
Associação Paulista de Medicina - APM

10.1590/S1516-31802006000400013
Letter to the Editor
Brazilian medical students want to learn homeopathy and acupuncture in medical schools
Dantas Flávio *
Rampes Hagen *
Address for correspondence: Flávio Dantas Rua Pedro de Toledo, 920 São Paulo (SP) — Brasil — CEP 04039-020 Tel. (+55 11) 5573-1433 Cell. (+55 11) 9106-1755 E-mail: fdantas@climed.epm.br
Hagen Rampes Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust 7 Floor — Premier House 112 Station Road Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 7BJ, United Kingdom E-mail: Hagen.Rampes@Beh-mht.nhs.uk
Conflict of interest: Not declared: None

04 5 2006
2006
124 4 237237
25 7 2005
18 7 2006
18 7 2006
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons license.
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pmcTeixeira'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.

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.

Sources of funding: Not declared: None
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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 15947835
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 9059376
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 6 204 206
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 2 132 132 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)
