Alternative therapies in health and medicine
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Altern Ther Health Med · Nov 2007
ReviewIntegrative mental health care: from theory to practice, part 1.
Integrative approaches will lead to more accurate and different understandings of mental illness. Beneficial responses to complementary and alternative therapies provide important clues about the phenomenal nature of the human body in space-time and disparate biological, informational, and energetic factors associated with normal and abnormal psychological functioning. The conceptual framework of contemporary Western psychiatry includes multiple theoretical viewpoints, and there is no single best explanatory model of mental illness. ⋯ In part 2, a practical methodology for planning integrative assessment and treatment strategies in mental health care is proposed. Using this methodology the integrative management of moderate and severe psychiatric symptoms is reviewed in detail. As the conceptual framework of Western medicine evolves toward an increasingly integrative perspective, novel understandings of complex relationships between biological, informational, and energetic processes associated with normal psychological functioning and mental illness will lead to more effective integrative assessment and treatment strategies addressing the causes or meanings of symptoms at multiple hierarchic levels of body-brain-mind.
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Altern Ther Health Med · Mar 2007
Adverse interactions between herbal and dietary substances and prescription medications: a clinical survey.
Patients often combine prescription medications with herbal and dietary substances (herein referred to as herbal medicines). A variety of potential adverse herb-drug interactions exist based on the pharmacological properties of herbal and prescription medications. ⋯ A substantial number of potential adverse herb-drug interactions were detected and a small number of adverse herb-drug interactions observed, particularly in diabetics taking nopal. Screening for herbal medicine usage in 804 patients did not uncover any serious adverse interactions with prescription medications.
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Altern Ther Health Med · Jan 2007
Clinical TrialBrief meditation training can improve perceived stress and negative mood.
To test a brief, non-sectarian program of meditation training for effects on perceived stress and negative emotion, and to determine effects of practice frequency and test the moderating effects of neuroticism (emotional lability) on treatment outcome. ⋯ Preliminary evidence suggests that even brief instruction in a simple meditation technique can improve negative mood and perceived stress in healthy adults, which could yield long-term health benefits. Frequency of practice does affect outcome. Those most likely to experience negative emotions may benefit the most from the intervention.