Introduction : Despite recent increase in the use of complementary medicine among general population and patients, there are a few studies about physicians’ attitude in this area. This study was carried out to study medical students’ attitude toward complementary medicine.

  Methods : This cross-sectional study was carried out using a researcher-made questionnaire regarding medical students` attitude about complementary medicine on 110 first and last year medical students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2011. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and independent t-test at significant level of 0.05.

  Results : 63( 57.3%) of students were in their first year of education. In the studied students, the most positive attitude was toward prayer therapy (14.5%), the most average attitude was about herbal medicine (73.6%) and the weakest attitude was toward leech therapy (85.5%). There was significantly higher week attitude in last year students comparing to first year students about herbal medicine ( 31.9% versus 7.9 % ), leech therapy ( 93.6% versus 79.4 % ) and dry cupping ( 87.2% versus 68.3 % ).

  Conclusion : R esults showed that the majority of students had an average to positive attitude about complementary medicine , b ut negative attitude toward complementary medicine, especially Iranian traditional medicine, was higher in last year students . Some educational courses for being familiar with complementary medicine can be useful .