CAM in psychiatry

Question 1

Ancient healing systems

Answer 1

arose long before conventional western medicine and include ayurveda from india and traditional chinese medicine

Question 2

homeopathy

Answer 2

minute doses of a substance that cause symptoms to stimulate the body’s self-healing response

Question 3

naturopathy

Answer 3

focuses on noninvasive treatments to help your body do its own healing and uses a variety of practices such as massage, acupuncture, herbal remedies, exercise, and lifestyle counseling

Question 4

mind-body medicine

Answer 4

strengthen the communication between your mind and body. the two systems must be in harmony for you to stay healthy. examples are meditation, prayer, relaxation, and art therapies

Question 5

biologically based practices

Answer 5

dietary supplements and herbal remedies. hinseng, ginkgo, echinacea. selenium, glucosamine sulfate, SAMe.

Question 6

manipulative and body based practices

Answer 6

use human touch to move or manipulate a specific part of your body. chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation and massage

Question 7

energy medicine

Answer 7

invisible energy force flows through your body and when this flow is blocked or unbalanced, you can become sick. chi, prana, life force. goal of therapies is to unblock or rebalance energy. reiki, magnet therapy, therapeutic touch, qi gong.

Question 8

why is there little research and evidence on CAM approaches

Answer 8

studies are costly. conventional therapies are funded by large companies with cash. NCCAM is an organization to try and get research done on CAM

Question 9

diet

Answer 9

increase fruits/veggies to obtain right amount of vitamins. Vitamin D, b12, folate, etc.

Question 10

exercise

Answer 10

may reset the circadian clock, improve energy, depression

Question 11

1 carbon cycle

Answer 11

for methylation. increases neurotransmitters. folate, B12, SAMe are all implicated. some people carry mutation for MTHFR gene where they cant convert folate to l-methylfolate and the cycle is defective and folate cannot cross the BBB

Question 12

fatty acids

Answer 12

found in fish oil and flax seed oil. anti-inflammatory. some evidence suggests that some patient suffer psychiatrically due to inflamm process.

Question 13

st. john’s wort

Answer 13

many trials support its use. RCT and meta analyses support effect over placebo. used as antidepressant

Question 14

vitamin D

Answer 14

deficiency is associated with depression. treatment is equivocal but replacement therapy is felt to be helpful as ruling out a potential cause of depression

Question 15

zinc, calcium, magnesium

Answer 15

little supportive data for these

Question 16

breating, yoga, mindfulness

Answer 16

sudarshan kriya yogic breathing has limited but reasonable evidence that it may lower PTSD and depressive symptoms. mindfulness permits individual to move away from the ‘noise’ in the mind and reduce negative influences

Question 17

acupuncture

Answer 17

good effectiveness in depression studies. too much variability in anxiety studies

Question 18

light therapy for depression

Answer 18

very good evidence. seasonal depression only!