Used as complementary to, alternating or integrated with mainstream medicine, the populations demand for non-conventional therapies has substantially increased in the past decades, requiring from doctors knowledge on the basic notions of such therapeutics to orient their patients regarding treatments different to the ones they usually prescribe. Among them, homeopathy and acupuncture are considered medical specialties in Brazil for various decades.
We updated data resulting from studies and reviews published until 2013 through a review of more recent studies included in database PubMed.
Results:
In all countries the teaching of non-conventional therapies is considered a relevant topic for the training of doctors as a function of the increasing interest of the population in their use, with a broad range of approaches targeting undergraduate and graduate students, medical residents and doctors from other medical specialties.