The Use of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Among Patients With Multiple Sclerosis in Morocco

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an acquired chronic, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. In addition to conventional MS therapy, patients are interested in traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM). Our study aims to describe the use of T&CM in a cohort of Moroccan patients with MS.

A quantitative descriptive study was adopted to study this subject. For data collection, we opted for an anonymous questionnaire for 98 patients with MS. We gathered data via an electronic survey, using multivariable analysis to examine the effect of specific factors on T&CM use. Data collection took place from March 2022 to June 2022.

The results show that 52% of patients use T&CM. Of those, 29.6% use cupping, 23.5% recite the Holy Quran, 15.3% use phytotherapy, 13.2% use apitherapy, and 10.2% use acupuncture. In addition, 66.3% of the surveyed respondents stated that alternative medicine positively affects their health. Finally, 49.1% of surveyed patients who use alternative medicine are between 30 and 40 years old. The results also show that the rate of T&CM use is higher in patients with progressive MS (OR = 2.540) and patients without financial access to disease-modifying therapy (OR = 2.100).

This study invites us to consider societal, cultural, and economic factors when studying the use of T&CM among people with MS. Further research is needed to understand the motivations for using T&CM.