輔助或補充療法近年來於國外十分盛行，常用於一些慢性、精神、和非特定之疾患，且精神疾患色者對此類療法之接受度似乎高於一般民眾。本研究的目的在於探討台灣精神科病患其使用中醫和其他輔助補充療法的情形。參照國外相關之研究設計問卷，以中部某醫學中心精神科病患爲研究對象，隨機抽選後經電話訪談或與病患直接會談以進行問卷調查，之後進行統計分析。在完成的個案164人中，113人使用過輔助或補充療法。接受中醫師診療最常被使用。人口學資料上以合併慢性疾患和女性，和使用中醫與否相關。使用中醫原因以身體疾患居多。治療精神疾患合併使用西藥者較多，而身體疾患則單用中藥較多。病患主觀上認爲對治療精神疾患之療效較不顯著，而對治療身體疾患上多認爲有療效、且和西醫效果相當。且多數病患未告知西醫師使用中藥。本研究精神病患中有相當高的比例，過去曾有使用中醫或其他補充療法的經驗，臨床醫師應有此認識並主動詢問病患使用中醫藥之情形。應有更多研究來驗證中醫藥對精神疾患的治療成效，並對中醫藥合併西藥使用之安全性有進一步的了解。

There has been rapid growth in the use of alternative and complementary therapies in recent years, especially in Europe and America. These therapies have been used in chronic, unspecific, and mental illness. However, it has been reported in some studies that these therapies have been more commonly used with psychiatric patients than with the rest of the population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the use of and attitudes toward alternative therapy by psychiatric outpatients in Taiwan. Cases were randomly selected from the Psychiatric Department of the Veterans General Hospital, Taichung. Each of the respondents completed a questionnaire. Biostatistics was used to analyze the questionnaire data. According to the results, 113 of the 164 respondents have used alternative therapies. Chinese herbal medicine was the most popular method among the alternative therapies. Combined chronic physical illness and female are related to the use of Chinese medicine. Most patients visited Chinese herbal medicine doctor about 2~5 times per year. Most herbal medicine user combined medicine from psychiatrist to treat psychiatric condition but took herbal medicine alone to treat physical illness. In conclusion, we found that many psychiatric patients used alternative medicine, especially Chinese herbal medicine. Clinical doctors should be aware of this trend and ask patients whether they use Chinese herbal medicine. More studies are needed to confirm the effects of Chinese herbal medicine and the safety of combining herbal and psychiatric medicine.