Complementary alternative medicine has been noticed by many patients, particularly with chronic disease such as diabetes mellitus. Present study was conducted to estimate frequency of use of complementary alternative medicine among diabetic patients .

  The studied patients were randomly selected from whom referred to endocrinology clinic in a university teaching hospital in Qazvin city, Iran. 197 patients were questioned about their use of complementary alternative medicine, their used methods, their satisfaction, costs that they have paid, way of obtaining information about the used methods, and their notification to their physician using a questionnaire approved by 3 expert endocrinologists. Also some general characteristics such as duration of the disease, their age and gender, and last FBS and HbA1C were collected from hospital records of the patients .

  We found that about 78.2% of the patients had used at least a method of complementary alternative medicine not less than once. The most frequent methods were diet therapy (29.4%), herbal drugs sold by laypersons (25.4%), use of opioids (23.9%), herbal drugs sold by pharmacies (21.3%), and spiritual therapy (13.7%). 0nly 23% of studied patients had told use of the method to their treating physician .

We concluded that many diabetic patients may use complementary alternative medicine without notification to their treating physician. The physicians should perceive the fact and talk with their patients about the matter. Training of diabetic patients for potential risks and benefits of complementary alternative medicine and necessity of adherence to the prescribed drugs even after use of complementary alternative medicine should be noticed