Alternative Therapies
Alternative therapies refer to non-traditional approaches to healing and wellness that are used in place of or alongside conventional medical treatments. These may include practices such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, meditation, and yoga. While some alternative therapies have gained popularity and shown potential benefits, it is important to approach them with caution and consult with a qualified healthcare professional.
5 Key excerpts on "Alternative Therapies"
eBook - ePub- Karen J. Carlson M.D., Stephanie A. Eisenstat M.D., Terra Ziporyn Ph.D.(Authors)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Belknap Press(Publisher)
...Others use both conventional and alternative approaches as appropriate in what they call “integrative medicine.” Nearly two-thirds of U.S. medical schools now offer courses on complementary or alternative medical practices and have begun to reexamine techniques once dismissed as quackery. It is not unusual to find traditional cancer therapy being supplemented by relaxation exercises and support groups, or to see studies in leading medical journals on the impact of yoga or biofeedback on coronary artery disease, or to encounter best-sellers written by prominent physicians about the influence of laughter or hope on the immune system. Many physicians question the more extravagant claims of certain Alternative Therapies. They warn that these practices, if not downright dangerous, may keep people from seeking effective treatment. Many clinicians are increasingly concerned about undesirable interactions that can come from patients mixing alternative and conventional medications without supervision. But it is becoming harder to deny that at least some alternative techniques work for some patients—even in cases where medical science cannot explain exactly how. Furthermore, the growing acceptance of Alternative Therapies has led some critics of mainstream medicine to perceive it as the harbinger of a medical revolution. They predict that Western medicine someday will evolve from its narrow biochemical model to a “biopsychosocial” one that incorporates holistic thinking: a perception—sometimes regarded as a traditionally feminine one—that the body is an integrated unity and that emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental factors are as crucial in determining illness as physical trauma or biochemical events. While acknowledging that viruses play a role in inducing colds, alternative healers may also consider stress in the workplace, mental depression, and inadequate diet equally important. Before the twentieth century such thinking was common in conventional medicine...
eBook - ePub- Uwe P. Gielen, Jefferson M. Fish, Juris G. Draguns, Uwe P. Gielen, Jefferson M. Fish, Juris G. Draguns(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...No culture stands by idly in the face of human suffering; all human societies have evolved methods aimed at restoring physical health, promoting psychological contentment, and achieving spiritual serenity. Healing as a concept then refers to the aggregate of techniques used to make human beings whole again by counteracting distress in the body, mind, and spirit. In traditional cultures, healers tended to address the gamut of human dysfunction. In the modern era, this holistic orientation to healing has been increasingly compromised and strained, if not irretrievably lost. Fragmentation and specialization have supplanted undifferentiated unity as subdisciplines within and outside medicine; psychology, counseling, nursing, and religious ministry complement each other’s services and often minister to, and even compete for, the same clients. Systems of alternative medicine have evolved, largely in order to restore coherence to the human strivings for promoting health and overcoming illness. As several chapters in this volume make clear, practitioners of alternative medicine are widely represented and consulted both within the United States and elsewhere. In philosophy, Rene Descartes drew a sharp line between the body and the mind. In the ensuing centuries, the secularization of Western civilization largely banished spiritual problems from the purview of scientifically based biomedical and psychological interventions, thereby extending separation of church and state to the individual on the intrapsychic plane. In her chapter in this volume, Michele Hirsch further develops some aspects of this theme. Psychotherapy In response to the compartmentalization of human experience, the enterprise of psychotherapy has come into being. It may be provisionally defined as “a method of working with patients/clients to assist them to modify, change, or reduce factors that interfere with effective living” (Fabrikant, 1984, p.184)...
eBook - ePubGlobal Mental Health and Psychotherapy
Adapting Psychotherapy for Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- Dan J. Stein, Judith K. Bass, Stefan G. Hofmann, Dan J. Stein, Judith K. Bass, Stefan G. Hofmann(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
...We emphasize the importance of an integrative theoretical and research framework. Keywords global mental health; psychotherapy; integration; evidence-based practice; translational research It is perhaps the best and worst of times for mental health practitioners and scientists. Advances in psychiatric epidemiology not only have quantified the prevalence and burden of mental disorders but also have emphasized the significant treatment gap, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) (Demyttenaere et al., 2004 ; Stein et al., 2015). Advances in neuroscience not only have led to a better understanding of the psychobiology of mental disorders but also have underscored how far we are away from a personalized psychiatry that targets specific brain circuitry in order to achieve symptom remission in the clinic (Stein et al., 2015). In this context, psychotherapy remains a key intervention in the clinic and a key focus of research. Several decades of research have established the efficacy of specific psychotherapies for particular conditions, and they are therefore recommended as first-line interventions in a broad range of evidence-based clinical guidelines. Furthermore, there have been gradual advances in our understanding of how psychotherapies effect psychological change, raising the possibility that in the future, clinician-scientists will be able to forge personalized psychotherapy plans that improve treatment outcomes. At the same time, further progress in psychotherapy requires important conceptual and empirical questions to be addressed. The diverse historical roots of psychotherapy, ranging from psychoanalytic to cognitive behavioral theories, raise the conceptual questions of how best to explain the nature of psychopathology and how best to account for changes that may be seen during psychotherapy...
eBook - ePub- Jo Cooper(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...illness control of symptoms maintenance or restoration of homeostasis. The principal philosophy is that health is multifactorial, and a multilevel phenomenon that recognises illness is associated with a disturbance of the balance between the: physical psychological social spiritual levels. Thus, intervention is about restoring the equilibrium between all these facets while encouraging the body’s own capacity to self-heal. 1 Conversely, Alternative Therapies are used instead of mainstream medical models, such as homeopathy and traditional Oriental medicine. 6, 7 Nonetheless, Alternative Therapies also have an affinity with the philosophical frameworks akin to complementary therapies, thus giving them a symbiotic relationship. It is because of this symbiotic relationship that the two terms are often used interchangeably which serves to confuse rather than clarify. In addition, the evolution of language used to cluster non-conventional health therapies has added to the confusion. In the mid-to-late 20th century the universal term used to describe unconventional therapies was alternative. However, when an increasing number of Alternative Therapies were used as adjuncts to mainstream medicine the term complementary was fostered in an attempt to better describe this integrative relationship. Currently, the literature refers to them as CAMS to denote a range of therapies within a single disciplinary framework. The Cochrane Collaboration has defined CAMS as:...a broad domain of healing resources that encompasses all health systems modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health systems of a particular society or culture in a given historical period, complementary therapies include all such practices and ideas self defined by their users as preventing or treating illness or promoting health and well being. 8 In principle, the Cochrane definition is broad...
- Marc Roberts(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...However, when considering the effectiveness of psychological therapies, it is important to recognise a distinction that is made between their efficacy and their effectiveness. While the former refers to the outcomes that psychological therapies produce under strictly controlled experimental conditions (as in randomised controlled trials), the latter refers to the outcomes that psychological therapies produce in the context of ‘routine, real-world’ therapeutic practice. The majority of studies into the outcomes of psychological interventions have been conducted under strict experimental conditions with highly selected participants, and have therefore assessed the efficacy of those interventions. However, the available research indicates that psychological therapies are also effective in so far as they have been found to produce beneficial, clinically significant outcomes when assessed in the context of routine therapeutic practice with people who have multiple, diverse and complex psychological problems (Stiles et al. 2008; Lambert 2013). Case study Anisha has been a qualified mental health professional for almost 18 months and during that time she has started to incorporate various psychotherapeutic techniques into her practice. While her own reflections and clinical experiences have led her to believe that such techniques are beneficial, she has recently discovered that the available research also provides evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of psychological interventions. Moreover, she has not only found out that service users/survivors express a general preference for psychological therapies over other forms of intervention but, somewhat to her surprise, that those interventions may be at least as efficacious as psychiatric drugs for some forms of mental distress. Such research findings, along with her own reflections and experiences, have led her to consider developing her ability to deliver psychological interventions...
