Survey of Sanandaj medical society member's attitudes and extent of their knowledge about herbal drugs and their prescription in 2001

Herbal medicine is one of the common methods of treatment in alternative medicine. Considering the ever-increasing rate of using the unconventional and herbal medicine in different societies, the evaluation of the knowledge of medical society members about herbal drugs and their administration is very important. This study was performed to determine the attitudes of Sanandaj medical society members and the extent of their knowledge about herbal drugs and their prescription in 2001. This study was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic one. The population under study included all physicians, dentists, pharmacists and midwifes in Sanandaj. Sample size comprised 248 people. Collected data were recorded in questionnaires and analyzed by means of SPSS. win and 2 descriptive statistical test. This study showed that 52.2% of population had affirmative views towards herbal drugs 23.5% expressed poor, 22.2% average and 16.7% good knowledge about herbal drugs. 81.4% of the population had prescribed at least one herbal drug. There was a significant relationship between the extent of knowledge about herbal drugs and job of the subjects under study, so that the highest and lowest knowledgeability were of pharmacists and midwifes respectively (p=0.001). There was a significant relationship between prescription of herbal drugs and job, so that pharmacists with 74% and general physicians with 81% had highest prescription rates (p=0.05). According to our findings Sanandaj medical society members had average knowledge and positive attitudes towards herbal drugs so that holding seminars and workshops are considered of special importance to increase the knowledge of medical staff about herbal drugs and also educational courses about herbal drugs for medical students and establishing the herbal drug pharmacies are conducive to advantage.