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Greece and Rome
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
During Pliny’s lifetime, medications were commonly prescribed by physicians, in sharp contrast to Hippocratic times when little use was made of drugs and vis medicatrix naturae was relied upon to effect a cure. The remedies mentioned by Pliny were chiefly herbal in origin, and designed for use by the layman as domestic medications (Jones, 1989). Unlike Dioscorides, Pliny attempted to explain drug actions on superstitious and magical grounds.
Madness in Ancient and Medieval Times
Published in Petteri Pietikainen, Madness, 2015
There were other kinds of treatments for the madness of a multitude. For instance, the learned man and master of medical knowledge, Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BCE–50 CE), recommended chains and whipping as well as starving the patient as a proper treatment for the mad. It was also helpful to instigate fear and terror in madmen. Celsus was probably the first to describe paranoia – perhaps his patients started to show signs of paranoia when, in the name of therapy, they were subjected to whipping or put in irons. To the common people of ancient Greece and Rome, and especially to slaves, Celsus’ recommended treatments were rather common experiences, whether or not they were mad. When slaves and the poor became ill, usually their only hope was that they would be cured by the healing powers of nature, as the Latin phrase vis medicatrix naturae, derived from the Hippocratic medicine, proclaims. There is some circumstantial evidence that, in antiquity, the mentally ill from the lower classes were sometimes killed (Deutsch 1949, 11).
Role of Naturopathy in Pain Management
Published in Mark V. Boswell, B. Eliot Cole, Weiner's Pain Management, 2005
The word physician is from the Greek root meaning nature. Hippocrates formulated the concept vis medicatrix naturae — the healing power of nature. This concept has long been at the core of indigenous medicine in many cultures around the world and remains one of the central themes of naturopathic philosophy to this day.
The Perspectives of Australian Naturopaths about Providing Health Services for People with Sleep Disorders
Published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 2021
Vibha Malhotra, Joanna Harnett, Keith Wong, Bandana Saini
As a start, for such integrated models to flourish, it may be important to acknowledge the “value-add” proposition that naturopathic care offers to sleep health even though there is a lack of evidence for its benefit from a conventional data-driven perspective. Our results indicate that naturopaths invest significant time in history taking and sleep health as a key lifestyle determinant and that this is a major focus of history taking regardless of whether sleep is a presenting complaint. These approaches outlined by our study participants are in line with key principles of naturopathy (Ooi et al., 2018), i.e. Vis Medicatrix Naturae(the body as its own healer), Tolle Totum(treat the whole person), Docee (doctor as teacher, health education) and Preventare (prevention), and as such are also aligned with conventional understanding of sleep and first principles in sleep health care. Another key gap in Australian primary care in terms of sleep health is that increasingly work-pressured GPs have limited consultation time, and sleep issues are relegated to the “back-burner” (Sake et al., 2019). Indeed, literature reports also suggest that sleep disorders such as insomnia are not usually considered as a priority by conventional doctors unless highlighted by the patient (Sake et al., 2019). Collaborative models either with co-located or independently practicing naturopaths can serve to address one of the key issues of under-recognition of sleep disorders by undertaking sleep health assessments using validated assessments and performing a “triage” role. Although participants did not report any uniform tools, training on using tools such as the Insomnia Severity Index (Morin et al., 2011), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Mollayeva et al., 2016) or Consensus Sleep Diaries provided to naturopaths can lead to improved assessment and the formulation of a common language when referring patients with poor sleep health quality to GPs and other conventional health professionals.