Forschende Komplementarmedizin最新文献

This project dealt with two subjects. On the one hand, the measurement of the quality of life of cancer patients which needed to be further refined in order to assess the usefulness and efficacy of a treatment by complementary medicine. On the other hand, it was important to know whether severely ill cancer patients treated in an anthroposophical clinic would differ from equally ill patients in a university hospital in terms of attitude towards their illness and in terms of clinical diagnosis. Finally, an attempt was made to demonstrate an improvement of quality of life in conventionally treated patients of the university hospital, who were offered an additional treatment either with a supportive-expressive group therapy or with an anthroposophical therapy. More than 500 patients participated in the study. There were marked sociodemographic and medical differences between the patients of the anthroposophical clinic and those of the university hospital. In addition, it seems that spiritually oriented and active, problem-oriented coping contribute a lot to the quality of life. It was not possible to truly compare the value of the two additional therapies offered to the patients at the university hospital because patient accrual was much slower than anticipated and many patients left the study too early for health reasons or death.

This meticulously evaluated study investigated two fundamental questions. The first dealt with the usefulness and adequacy of the instruments (questionnaires and case report forms) presently available in mainstream clinical research when trying to evaluate two dissimilar therapeutic systems such as main stream medicine and homeopathy. The second question dealt with the comparability of the two populations of patients in terms of individual personality characteristics as well as regarding the progress of the pregnancies and the course of the deliveries under the two systems of care and control. It turned out that a study of that kind is feasible in principle but is very demanding and time consuming. In addition the study showed clearly that the instruments presently available in mainstream medicine do not cover essential aspects of homeopathy and, therefore, impede a comparison of the two therapeutic systems. In the homeopathic group the frequency of situations requiring a Cesarean was remarkably low. However, the number of cases is too small to draw qualifying conclusions.

The aim of the study was to investigate the possible usefulness of foot reflexology on the recovery after a surgical intervention. 130 patients participated in the study. They underwent abdominal surgery under full anesthesia for different, but exclusively gynecological reasons. Foot reflexology investigated in this study was applied only for a few days for each patient. The following parameters were recorded: the subjective, self-assessed, general condition, pain intensity, movement of the bowels, micturition and sleep, beginning on the day before operation until day 10. Two other treatments served as controls, a simple massage of the foot or a personal conversation. The simple massage turned out to be a relaxing, positive experience, whereas foot reflexology had various effects, some of them were even negative. The conclusion was that foot reflexology is not recommended for acute, abdominal postsurgical situations in gynecology because it can occasionally trigger abdominal pain. This project is one of the few studies planned, conducted and performed by the nursing staff.

In this controlled clinical trial hypnosis and self-hypnosis were evaluated when used as an adjuvant treatment to instrumental and pharmacological management of chronic pain. The study took place in a hospital specialized in the treatment of outpatients suffering from chronic pain. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis were administered and taught by nurses who had been trained just recently for this very purpose. Under the conditions of the study it was not possible to measure an effect of hypnosis on pain despite some subjective feeling of usefulness. However, it should be taken into account that this form of adjuvant therapy was used for the first time in that hospital for the purpose of the study and, therefore, took place in an artificial setting. It could well be that the same therapy administered in the proper therapeutic environment of a specialized institution could show beneficial effects on pain.

The 66 randomized patients with mild bronchial asthma who took part in this study were divided into three nearly equal groups. Group one was treated with true acupuncture during the first and the fourth month (up to week 16). Group two was treated similarly but needled at non-acupuncture points. The third group served as a control. All patients were allowed to maintain their normal asthma medication with the recommendation to keep the regimen unchanged until week 20, i. e. 4 weeks after termination of the specific treatment. The changes in peak flow variability up to week 16 served as main outcome criterion. Additional parameters included several spirometric analyses as well as various markers in blood and sputum that are specific for the allergic inflammatory reaction of the upper respiratory tract. The values measured showed considerable individual variability. This impeded the demonstration of efficacy. In conclusion it can be stated that there was a consistent, positive yet unspecified effect of the needling in both treated groups which can be interpreted as a trend in affecting the asthmatic condition. This effect could have been more pronounced or even clinically relevant for certain individuals had one considered a separate analysis of the data of each patient.

The aim of this study in hypnosis was the exemplary verification of a regulatory intervention in patients with pollinosis. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis are established methods in medicine. 52 patients with pollinosis participated in this clinical study. It lasted over two pollen seasons. Self-hypnosis was learned quite easily. It resulted in a clear yet statistically weak beneficial effect on the subjective assessment of the pollinosis symptoms, on the consumption of drugs and on other objective findings. From a methodological point of view this study might suggest that the classical comparison of experimental groups in clinical research could hide some larger therapeutic effects in individual patients. Therefore, it would be desirable to consider also individual data analysis in all future studies dealing with psychological or psychosomatic mechanisms and in all studies which capture parameters interactive at different levels. The beneficial effect of hypnosis on the swelling of the nasal mucous membrane in a provocation test initiated a subsequent small project on the possible mode of action of hypnosis in this pollinosis study. However, the results were inconclusive.

Chronic and episodic headaches in children and adolescents are a common problem. Therefore, the growing resistance against frequent use of drugs is quite justified. This study was initiated in search for other helpful therapeutic approaches. The aim was to compare the effect of 5 sessions of hypnosis/ self-hypnosis given at weekly intervals and lasting half an hour each with two psychological treatments requiring the same amount of time, namely behavior therapy and talks to the doctor. Despite the small number of patients, both types of treatments were effective. However, the hypnosis/self-hypnosis seems to be superior not only in terms of frequency and intensity of the headaches but also concerning the patients' ability to keep their headaches and their well-being under control.

Experienced dowsers were able to localize radiesthetically defined zones with statistically highly significant accuracy in blind and double-blind experiments. The transition from neutral to active zones and vice-versa could be demonstrated electromyographically on various arm muscles of sensitive persons. Thus, there is most likely a relationship between an active zone and certain functions of the human body. This project deals with basic research, it does not examine possible causes of diseases. Nevertheless, the often postulated influence of active zones on health is part of the background of the project.

This study tried to investigate whether bioresonance therapy could have a beneficial effect in stuttering children of school age who showed no progress under other therapies. The 14 patients, age 9-18 years, were randomized in two groups. The first received 10 sessions of bioresonance, the second continued with speech therapy. In the second phase of the study the first group received speech therapy while the second was treated by bioresonance. The intensity of the stuttering was measured at the beginning, at mid-term and at the end of the 9 months experiment. Various established methods were used for that purpose. It was not possible to demonstrate any improvement of the stuttering during or after either of the two therapies. This study showed how difficult it is to investigate stuttering scientifically. It turned out that in reality there is a lack of precise differential diagnosis. This means that true stuttering can hardly be distinguished from other speech disturbances and is under the influence of countless external factors.