Authors: Takashi Takeda Takuhiro Yamaguchi Nobuo Yaegashi
Publish Date: 2011/06/25
Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 143-149
Abstract
Kampo Japanese herbal medicine is the complementary and alternative medicine that is most frequently used by Japanese doctors We studied the perceptions and attitudes of Japanese gynecologic cancer patients to Kampo medicines and analyzed the characteristics of the backgrounds of Kampo usersIt was confirmed that 229 of the women had used Kampo medicine Kampo users were more likely to have had chemotherapy and were more likely to have experienced uncomfortable side effects of cancer treatment Kampo users were more likely to believe that ‘Kampo offers relief of symptoms’ ‘fewer side effects than Westernstyle medicine’ and ‘is not less effective than Westernstyle medicine’ than nonusers Kampo users expressed a stronger attitude of ‘I want to take Kampo medicine’ Multiple risk ratio regression analysis revealed that chemotherapy RR 182 95 CI 114–291 lower state anxiety RR 076 95 CI 058–100 and higher trait anxiety RR 146 95 CI 111–192 were independently associated with Kampo useThis study showed that slightly less than onefourth of Japanese gynecologic cancer patients take Kampo medicine Kampo users made more favorable comments on Kampo medicine than nonusers Our findings suggest that the psychological characteristics of individual patients is one of the factors that can influence the usage of Kampo
Keywords: