Zeynep Güngörmüş1, Emine Kıyak2

1Department Of Public Health Nursing, Faculty Of Health Sciences, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
2Department Of Internal Medicine Nursing, Faculty Of Health Sciences, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey

Keywords: Pain, Complementary and Alternative Treatment, Nursing,

Abstract

Purpose: This study was carried out as descriptively in order to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and behaviors of individuals who suffer from pain towards Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM).
Material and Method: The research was applied to 535 adult individuals suffer from pain who visited a family health centre in Erzurum between September 5th and November 30th in 2010. The data were collected by questionnaire form, and computer environment are evaluated.
Results: 42.4% of the individuals mentioned that they use CAM in order to eliminate pain, 83.7% of them mentioned that the method they applied eliminated their pain and 39.6% of them used CAM by the recommendation. It was observed that 95.5% of the participants believe in that positive thinking helps the patients recover from their minor diseases, 91.6% of them believe in that it is necessary to perform much more scientific tests on CAM, 65.6% of them believe in that CAM may be dangerous, 68.4% of them believe in that CAM may be used as a last resort, 93.6% of people believe in that they are likely to be ill by range of stressful events, 61.9% believe in that it is worthless to try CAM before seeing the doctor, 68.2% believe in that CAM should not be used for serious diseases, 76.3% believe in that CAM helps the lasting treatment.
Conclusion: It was founded out that people who suffer from the pain apply for the modern medicine and have positive attitudes towards CAM.