AnthroMed Library is a repository for articles, audio, and video relating to Anthroposophic medicine. Sponsored by PAAM - Physicians' Association for Anthroposophic Medicine.
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A collaborative model of integrative care: Synergy between Anthroposophic music therapy, acupuncture, and spiritual care in two patients with breast cancer. ABSTRACT
(2018-10) Ben-Arye, Eran; Preis, Liora; Barak, Yael; Samuels, Noah
Complementary/integrative medicine (CIM) has been shown to play an important role in supportive cancer care, relieving symptoms and improving quality of life among oncology patients. Communication between CIM practitioners and oncology healthcare professionals has been researched in depth, while little attention has been paid to the interaction between CIM practitioners from different disciplines who work together in the integrative oncology setting. The present paper explores the interaction between an Anthroposophic music therapist and a spiritual care provider who co-treated two female patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. The joint CIM treatments took place in an Integrative Oncology service in northern Israel, and the collaboration between the two practitioners resulted in a synergistic therapeutic process, promoting the patients' wellbeing and facilitating spiritual growth. There is a need to further explore therapeutic interactions between CIM therapists from different disciplines, who often work together in the integrative oncology setting. Collaboration between different CIM disciplines can lead to a synergy which goes beyond an additive effect of the individual therapies.
Removal of dental amalgam restorations in patients with health complaints attributed to amalgam: A prospective cohort study.
(2020-11) Björkman, Lars; Musial, Frauke; Alraek, Terje; Werner, Erik L.; Weidenhammer, Wolfgang; Hamre, Harald J
The Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services initiated a project including experimental treatment for patients with health complaints attributed to amalgam restorations.
The aim was to evaluate changes of general health complaints in patients who participated in the project and had all amalgam restorations removed.
The project was designed as a prospective cohort study and organised by the Dental Biomaterials Adverse Reaction Unit in Bergen, Norway. The dental treatment was provided by the patient's local dentist. The main target group consisted of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms, attributed to dental amalgam restorations (Amalgam cohort). The primary comparison group consisted of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms without attribution to dental amalgam restorations (MUPS cohort). Primary outcome was self-reported general health complaints (GHC index) at follow-up 12-months after completed amalgam removal.
In the Amalgam cohort, a significant reduction of GHC index from 43.3 (SD 17.8) at baseline to 30.5 (SD 14.4) at follow-up (mean reduction 12.8, SD 15.9; n = 32; P < .001) was observed. The change scores for GHC index indicated that the reduction of complaints was significantly higher (P = .004) in the Amalgam cohort compared with the MUPS cohort (mean reduction 1.2, SD 12.3, n = 28). After adjustment for age, gender, education and baseline GHC index, the mean adjusted difference was -8.0 (95% confidence interval from -15.4 to -0.5; P = .036).
In a group of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms, which they attributed to dental amalgam restorations, removal of amalgam restorations was followed by a significant reduction of health complaints.
