Development of palliative medicine in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Eduardo Bruera, Irene Higginson, Charles F von Gunten, Tatsuya Morita in Textbook of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care, 2015
Traditional medicine is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the sum total of knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve, or treat physical and mental illnesses. Â 1 Complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) is defined by the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) as a group of diverse medical and health-care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered as part of conventional medicine. Â 2 Complementary medicine is an approach combining conventional medical therapies with CAM or nonconventional therapies for which there may exist high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness. Alternative medicine, however, is defined as the use of a nonconventional modality for which there is no scientific evidence of efficacy in place of conventional medicine. Â 2 Integrative medicine describes a philosophy of practice using an evidence-based approach to merge conventional and nonconventional therapies. An integrative, interdisciplinary approach advocating open communication between conventional and nonconventional health-care providers can help patients better meet their goals in a safe manner. Nonconventional or CAM therapies have been subdivided into four broad subsections by NCCAM Â 2 (see Table 91.1).
Understanding medications and medical investigations
Ross Balchin, Rudi Coetzer, Christian Salas, Jan Webster in Addressing Brain Injury in Under-Resourced Settings, 2017
In many parts of the world, local traditional (folk, indigenous) medicines, beliefs and practices prevail, not Western (biomedical) medical perspectives. Many alternative (alternative medicine) and complementary medical practices (complementary medicine), such as acupuncture, are also widely used. The World Health Organization (2000) defined traditional medicine as follows: It is the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses.
Spirituality
Inge B. Corless, Zelda Foster in The Hospice Heritage: Celebrating Our Future, 2020
A growing number of people are advocating the use of alternative modalities in bringing people to a more holistic way of being (Acterberg, Dossey, & Kolkmeier, 1994; Brown-Saltzman, 1997; Dossey, 1993). The complementary modalities which have been grouped under “alternative medicine” include acupuncture, therapeutic touch, biofeedback, relaxation, guided imagery, aromatherapy, chiropractic, herbal medicine, massage, and prayer. Dossey specifically elaborated his views with examples of what he calls non-local prayer, citing as his research base a number of studies using scientific protocols. Other researchers continue that effort (Levin, 1996; Levin, Lyons & Larson, 1994). Kathleen Fischer (1995), writing out of a more self-conscious spiritual perspective, is drinking from the same well. Her notions of healing interventions with women in the second half of life are borne out of her conviction that women’s experience, imagination, em-beddedness, connectedness, stories and images are their most viable source of spiritual sustenance. She offers rituals, insights, and observations about actualizing the redemptive power of spirituality for women who are undergoing change and transition, including loss.
The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in Psychiatric Units in Sweden
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2020
Maria Wemrell, Anna Olsson, Kajsa Landgren
According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), CAM consists of “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine” (NCCAM., 2006). While the use of these concepts differs somewhat between contexts and actors, complementary medicine typically refers to therapy used in combination with conventional medicine, also by health care personnel, while alternative medicine is a term for practices used instead of it. Integrative medicine refers to the actual or potential integration of complementary methods in conventional healthcare (Jensen et al., 2007; SOU 2019:15, 2019). Eklöf and Kullberg (2004) distinguish between four types of CAM practice. The first is comprised of CAM treatments outside of conventional healthcare, paid by the patient. The second consists of patients seeking licensed practitioners such as chiropractors through referral from conventional care, while the third encompasses licensed healthcare personal practicing forms of CAM within conventional care. The fourth group consists of close cooperation, under the ‘same roof’, between healthcare personnel and CAM therapists. CAM encompasses a wide variety of different practices, which the NIH (Jensen et al., 2007; NCCAM., 2006) divide into alternative medical systems (e.g., Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine), mind-body interventions (e.g., meditation and mental training), biologically based therapies (e.g., herbs and nutritional supplements), manipulation therapies (e.g., chiropractic and massage), and energy therapies (e.g., healing).
Impact of interventions targeting anxiety and depression in adults with asthma
Published in Journal of Asthma, 2022
Caitlin Cooley, Yaejin Park, Olusola Ajilore, Alex Leow, Sharmilee M. Nyenhuis
Medication and psychological interventions are first-line treatments for mental health disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety). Psychological interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy guides the patient to challenge the validity of maladaptive thoughts and behaviors and is widely used for depression and anxiety disorders (19,20). Lifestyle medicine and completementary and alternative medicine may offer potentially safe and low-cost treatment options. Lifestyle medicine can encompass many different areas including the adoption of evidence-based physical activity or exercise, dietary modification, relaxation, breathing exercises, mindfulness-based meditation techniques, spiritual healing and the reduction or cessation of recreational substances (e.g., nicotine, drugs, and alcohol) (21). Complementary and Alternative Medicine can include treatments such as acupuncture and craniosacral therapy which may be attractive to patients wanting a holistic treatment approach. The overall goal of this scoping review is to understand the current evidence in managing depression and/or anxiety symptoms in adults with asthma and identify research gaps in this understudied area.
Ethical and Legal Considerations of Alternative Neurotherapies
Published in AJOB Neuroscience, 2021
Ashwini Nagappan, Louiza Kalokairinou, Anna Wexler
Notably, therapies that meet the criteria above are often referred to as complementary or alternative medicine (CAM; Ernst, Cohen, and Stone 2004; Ernst and Smith 2018). Though the exact definition of CAM varies considerably (Hufford 2003; IOM 2005; Mertz 2007), it broadly refers to therapies that either complement, or provide alternatives to, traditional ones (NCCIH 2018; Wilkinson 2013). According to the taxonomy set forth by Kaptchuk and Eisenberg (2001), CAM includes medical systems (e.g., acupuncture, homeopathy, and naturopathy), alternative dietary practices (e.g., nutritional supplements and macrobiotics), New Age healing (e.g., energies, Reiki, and crystals), mind-body therapies (e.g., hypnosis and meditation) and “non-normative scientific enterprises” wherein practitioners advocate “theories and practices unacceptable to the general scientific community” (Kaptchuk and Eisenberg 2001). As Kaptchuk and Eisenberg (2001) note, techniques in this latter category often utilize “unvalidated diagnostic methods” and “unconventional technological devices,” and may blur the boundaries between accepted and unaccepted off-label uses.
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