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Knowledge, attitudes, and usage of complementary-alternative medicine (CAM): A national survey of clinical psychologists in Indonesia

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Abstract

This nationwide cross-sectional study aimed to explore Indonesian clinical psychologists’ (CP) knowledge, attitudes, and usage of complementary-alternative medicines (CAM). A link to the online survey was emailed to all 1045 registered CP in the Indonesian Clinical Psychology Association database. Participants were asked about: CAM knowledge, attitudes towards CAM, and CAM usage activities (personal purpose, recommendation, referral, and the use of CAM in practice). Two hundred and seventy-four CP completed the questionnaire (mean of age = 35.4 years, SD = 7.87) and were predominantly female (n = 237, 86.5%). Participants reported low CAM knowledge and positive attitudes towards CAM. Almost half of the participants reported personal experiences of using CAM as the main resource of CAM knowledge. The majority of participants (n = 239, 87.2%) had used CAM personally, had recommended CAM (n = 230, 83.9%), had made a referral to a CAM practitioner (n = 143, 52.2%), and had used CAM in their clinical practice (n = 180, 65.7%). Spiritual-religious therapy was the most often used method by participants. In exploring prediction models, it was found that age, knowledge of, together with attitudes towards CAM contributed to the prediction of CAM usage activities. In conclusion, despite low CAM knowledge, CP in Indonesia reported positive attitudes towards CAM and most had used CAM. Findings from this study might be used by professional organizations, psychology faculties, and the government to review the basic competency of CP and regulation in integrating CAM to psychology services.

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Notes

  1. Nineteen methods/techniques that are listed in SCPS: Psychoanalysis, Existential Therapy, Humanistic Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Behavioural Therapy, Rational-Emotive Therapy, Reality Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Logo Therapy, Family and Couple Therapy, Group Therapy, Play Therapy, Psychodrama, Vocational Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Psychosocial Treatment and Rehabilitation, and Biofeedback. However, the IPK HIMPSI does not provide definitions or detailed procedures of these psychotherapies.

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Acknowledgements

The first author is supported by Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Scholarship (LPDP RI) under a doctoral degree scholarship (20150122082410). The authors thank the Indonesian Clinical Psychology Association (IPK HIMPSI) for the permission to collect data and all participants. Data of this study is part of a larger study on CAM among clinical psychologists in Indonesia (the first author’s doctoral thesis). The authors thank Bryanna Wilson, BA (Hons) for the proofreading of the manuscript; and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

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  1. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, Australia

    Andrian Liem & Peter A. Newcombe

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  1. Andrian Liem
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Correspondence to Andrian Liem.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland (#16-PSYCH-PHD-08-JH) and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Participation in the study was on a voluntary basis and anonymous. Electronic informed consent, by clicking ‘I agree’ on the online information and consent page prior to the survey, was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Liem, A., Newcombe, P.A. Knowledge, attitudes, and usage of complementary-alternative medicine (CAM): A national survey of clinical psychologists in Indonesia. Curr Psychol 40, 3477–3487 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00290-1

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