Introduction: The widespread use of complementary and alternative medicine and the fact that these are not innocuous makes it important for physicians to be familiar with it in order to properly advise their patients. The aim of this study was to identify attitudes, knowledge and views of Portuguese physicians about complementary and alternative medicine.Material and Methods: An observational, analytical, cross-sectional study was performed. A questionnaire with dichotomous and multiple-choice answers on a 5-point Likert scale, was sent to all doctors registered in the Portuguese Medical Association. It included beliefs and convictions regarding complementary and alternative medicine; aspects related to the types of complementary and alternative medicine legally approved in Portugal; sources used to obtain information about complementary and alternative medicine; and questions about complementary and alternative medicine in the Portuguese context. The statistical analysis of the data was made using SPSS v.27.0 and all conclusions were taken at a significance level of 5%.Results: From a total sample of 4334 doctors that fully completed the questionnaire, 45.5% reported not feeling comfortable talking, debating, and elucidating their patients about complementary and alternative medicine. The majority, 68.6%, considered that the competence in medical acupuncture of the Portuguese Medical Association should remain available. However, 72.4% believe that complementary and alternative medicine should not be included in the National Health Service.Conclusion: Portuguese doctors seem to have a low level of knowledge about complementary and alternative medicine, and a relevantpart of them does not feel prepared to advise their patients about it.
A genre of speech used by the speaker to access an essentially therapeutic power, but also traditionally to invoke a magical or divine power to destroy an opponent, the curse (in Portuguese “praga”, from the Latin “plaga”: “blow,” “wound,” “calamity,” in the proper and figurative sense) is at the same time a discourse of threat and satire, a discourse of merciless predation by an adversary who employs the force of words and gestures invested with supernatural power. In this article, based mainly on the many dozens of curses spoken by characters in the works of the Portuguese novelist Aquilino Ribeiro, I propose to build a theory (literary, cultural and anthropological) of the curse.
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